Swede
Swede Pronounce it: sw-ee-d A member of the cabbage family, the swede is often confused with the turnip, though they look quite different. It’s also known as yellow turnip, Swedish turnip and Russian turnip and,…
Sugar
Sugar Pronounce it: shuh-ga Honey and syrups made from concentrated fruit juice were the earliest known sweeteners. Today, refined sugar is the most popular type of sweetener and it is made from sugar cane or…
Garam masala
Garam masala Pronounce it: gar-am mah-sarl-ah Meaning ‘warming spice mix’, garam masala is the main spice blend used in North Indian cookery. There are many different versions, often dictated by region, but most contain a…
Peanut butter
Peanut butter Pronounce it: pee-nut butt-ah Peanut butter starts with dry roasting peanuts, which concentrates and heightens their flavour and increases the proportion of oil to solids by getting rid of other moisture. As is…
Seitan
Seitan Pronounce it: say-tan Seitan (or wheat gluten) is pure gluten, vegetarian protein, extracted from several types of wheat flour by a kneading and rinsing process, after which it is boiled for some time before…
Wasabi
Wasabi Pronounce it: wah-sarb-ee The Japanese answer to horseradish, wasabi is related to watercress and grows in a similar way, with its roots in water. The root is pale green in colour, and either grated…
Samphire
Samphire Pronounce it: sam-fire Though there are two types of samphire – marsh and rock – only marsh samphire is widely available. Marsh samphire has vibrant green stalks, similar to baby asparagus, with a distinctively…
Teff
Teff This tiny grass seed is a staple food in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The seeds produce a harvest proportionally hundreds of times greater than wheat or other staple grains. This, combined with its ability to…
Linseed (also flaxseed)
Linseed (also flaxseed) Pronounce it: lin-seed Linseed is the small, reddish-brown or golden-yellow seed of the common flax plant, linum usitatissimum, exactly the same plant as is used to grow the fibre from which true…
Millet
Millet Pronounce it: mil·let Worthy of far more than its bird food label, millet actually ranks as the sixth most important grain in the world, sustaining more than a third of the world’s population. It was one…