[Sca-cooks] A form of CURRY, was Re: Real Cubebs?

Susan Fox selene at earthlink.net
Fri Jun 11 07:33:56 PDT 2010


Two Knives Blend is a curry powder with no chili at all, formulated 
originally for Master El of the Two Knives, who was allergic to capsicum 
peppers.  It's also a pretty good, flavorful blend on its own merits and 
to me, represents a clue what Indian food was like before 1500 and 
Everything Changed. 

Cheers to Auntie Arwen for her thoughtfulness and good marketing 
strategy, making products FOR people!

Tangential sob story:  my bf spend a month in Hyderabad on business a 
couple years ago, and darn near starved because he is a "weak sister" 
like me, likes to taste the actual food instead of heat.  Apparently 
Hyderabad is known for the hottest food in India and he had to adapt or 
starve.  Even plain scrambled eggs came doused in pepper sauce.

Selene

Saint Phlip wrote:
> Pick them up from Auntie Arwen. She4 sells at Pennsic, and has pretty
> well picked up where the Pepperer's Guild left a hole in our spices.
> She has great stuff- for those of you weak sisters, who'd like to try
> a curry powder with incredible flavor, and no heat, you ought to try
> her Two Knives blend ;-) But I digress-
>
> Her website is a mess at the moment- her friend and webmaster passed
> away recently, but I did find the cubebs. Yes, they're cubebs- I
> bought a little stash last Pennsic.
>
> http://www.auntiearwenspices.com/detail.php?prod_id=544
>
> Better order quickly, because it's getting on towards Pennsic, and
> things get packed up ahead of time.
>
> On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 3:46 PM,  <lilinah at earthlink.net> wrote:
>   
>> I love cubebs. I first bought them in a spice shop in the mid 1970s just
>> because i had no idea what they were. Yeah, i do that, buy mysterious
>> ingredients, then find out what they are.
>>
>> Cubebs look like black peppercorns but a bit larger and with a fine stem
>> (tail). They have a peppery scent with a hint of citrus and resin. In my
>> experience they are not as hot as regular peppers, but are more aromatic
>> (plus i don't have the reaction to them i have to pepper skins.... which is
>> why i tend to use white pepper).
>> For more info:
>> http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Pipe_cub.html
>>
>> I buy a lot of spices at Lhasa Karnak, in Berkeley, which is generally
>> reliable. But a few years ago there was a problem with cubebs (i forget
>> which, a disease or insect infestation). Since then LK has been selling as
>> cubebs something that definitely is not cubeb. They are tinier than cubebs,
>> have no tail, and pretty much no flavor. The wrinkled black skin slips off
>> easily revealing a red-brown smoothing skinned sphere.
>>
>> Does anyone know where to get REAL cubebs?
>> (not a random link on the internet that i could find myself, or ''i think so
>> and so sells them''. I want to know i'm getting the real thing rather than i
>> buying more of something that isn't cubeb.)
>> Or are they still unavailable in the US?
>>
>> With hope and thanks in advance,
>> --
>> Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM]
>> the persona formerly known as Anahita
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>>
>>     
>
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