Spanish spices and herbs

Spanish food is heaven for those who, like me, love their spices and herbs. There are spices for sale in the country that i had never previously heard of, let alone tasted. Local outdoor markets often have stalls selling a wide array of spices and herbs that smell superb and taste terrific when added to traditional Spanish meals. We have the Moors to thank for so much of that.

It was they who brought the likes of cumin, coriander, nutmeg, peppercorns, cloves and cinnamon to Spain. So it was that the Spanish got to like spice in their food. Indeed they very quickly grew to love it.

That presented a problem when the Christian Kings, Ferdinand and Isabella, drove the muslims out of Spain in the middle of the 15th century. The people could not longer get hold of spices and were angry about that. Granada, a city from which all muslims and jews were expelled by the invading armies, was particularly well known for its spices. So it was that Isabella funded the sailings of Christopher Columbus. Not only did he discover the so called 'new world' but, crucially, he brought back chilli pepper, chocolate and vanilla.

The chilli was a fine replacement for the absent, and most treasured, spice of them all - peppercorns. The new chilli was toned down. What Columbus brought back was way too hot for tastes in those days. Mild red peppers were produced from the chilli. It was added to stews and, once soaked, the flesh would be scraped from the skin and stirred into a sauce. This way it could be used as a substitute for the absent saffron. The peppers were also milled and stored in powder form as pimentón. This was then used to colour chorizo.

Saffron (azafrán), a spice used so often in Spanish cooking, was already growing well across the central plateau of Spain long before Columbus set sail. Its bright red stamens have been valued for many years. A very labour intensive spice, saffron has always been an expensive spice. To produce just 1 kilo of saffron you would have to use 85.000 crocus sativus flowers. Spanish saffron is rarely powdered. Today it is one spice that the Spanish do use freely, especially in paella, where saffron gives the rice its yellow colour.

Paprika (pimentón) is another much used spice in most of mainland Spain, although Catalans prefer to use black pepper (pimienta). Paprika flavours many a Spanish dish and is used liberally as though it were pepper. It is made from a sweet red bell pepper that has a round body. There are three grades of paprika in Spain. Dulce (mild), picante (which contains a little chilli) amd agridulce (bittersweet).  Sweet paprika is the most commonly used spice in Spain.

Herbs also play a huge and important role in Spanish cooking. I rarely cook without them.

Fennel is a favourite. It has to be one of the most stand out, dramatic herbs in Spain. The smell alone is overwhelming.  It grows wildly across much of the country. It tastes a little like aniseed and is used to flavour cooking water for shellfish.

Parsley has become the most important fresh herb when it comes to Spanish cooking. It turns up in numerous recipes. Meanwhile mint is grown aplenty and i love to use it on lamb or with broad beans.

Coriander (cilantro) has to be my favourite herb and never more so than when it adorns spicy Moorish kebabs grilled to perfection in many a Spanish restaurant. I've never understood why coriander is used so little in much of Spain. It can be hard to buy coriander where i live in the province of Granada. To source it easily you have to live in the parts of Spain where, thanks to the nearby influence of Portugal, it is used in the place of parsley. It is particularly prevalent in cooking throughout the provinces of Extremdura and Huelva. Now, for me, coriander is worth searching out - although moving home in order to have a ready supply of one herb may be considered a little excessive. But then again, Columbus went much further in order to satisfy Spanish tastebuds.