Today's exciting foray into cupboarding, was the spice cupboard. Actually it was 2 cupboards. One has the spices (and foil and cling film) in, the other has the spare spices, empty spice jars, and sausage making stuff in.
I started iwith the spares. I threw away a lot of opened (but vacuum sealed) stuff. I keot any whole spices, even if they were past their best before date. Whole spices are dried, so it doesn't matter too much, it's usually the ground stuff which loses its potency. I threw out jars which I'm not going to use. I cleaned the cupboard floor and sides.
Then the main cupboard. This is divided into herbs and spices we use all the time (the top drawer), herbs and spices we use all the time but are too tall to fit in the top (middle drawer), and stuff we use ocassionally.
I sorted them by drawer and then alphabetically. This identified some duplicates (some of which were unopened and so went into the spares cupboard), some that were just too old, and some that needed re-canting into better jars.
The top drawer was, and still is, just a mish mash of every day stuff. The duplicates have been removed though, some of the stuff has been re-canted into better jars, and I've printed a couple of labels for jars that didn't have anything. I don't have the energy or inclincation to replace perfunctional labels.
The bottom drawer is alphabetical (which it always has been, it just gets lost after a while) and I've now sectioned it into 3 to help maintain discipline. I've also put some of the generic seasonings together.
No change to the middle drawer.
I also went ahead with my plan to try all the tea samples (not all at once, of course). I decided to go fror what might be the most challenging one, a bag of Russian Caravan tea (BBE 2019). Russian Caravan Tea is a smoked tea.
This wasn't actually a sample, I'd bought a pack with a tea order probably 5 years ago. I can't remember why I thought i'd like it. Maybe it was when we were going through a phase of smoking lots of food? Maybe the description on the website was just too interesting to resist. I can't remember now.
I googled how much tea to use (1 level teaspoon per 6 fl oz), and whether to fully boil the water (yes),how long to steep (3 mins), whether I could add milk (yes,.maybe/depends) and made some.
It smelt like I'd left a cup of tea by a bonfire.
It tasted like I'd left a cup of tea by the bonfire.
But it wasn't horrible at all. I can't say that I'd be buying this instead of assam, but it actually was OK.
I'm a bit surprised about this, but
I may even put some in an airtight cannister and keep it. It might work as a marinade flavouring as well, to being a little smokiness without harshness.
(And probably throw it out next time I go round this loop).
