cumin and ... swiss cheese?

Ah the misunderstood spice. The word "spicy" seems to imply pungency and heat, when ironically, most of the spices aren't actually "spicy" at all. Save for the illustrious chile.

But that's not what I'm interested in today. You see, I believe that spices are vastly underutilized. For some reason anything with spices in it is deemed as "ethnic" cuisine. Hmmm. Now that is something worth re-thinking.

Many of these spices - cumin, coriander, ginger, fennel seed, anise seed, caraway - are believed to enhance digestion and provide numerous other healing properties. So I say let's eat 'em.

So you see. This is what I do. I play with my food. Just like my momma told me not to.

I think one of the single greatest spices is cumin. And it's purported to have hordes of health benefits. Cumin is in the Old Testament. It is purportedly good for digestion and relieves flatulence (!). Also it has been taken to improve in the production of breast milk. It can even be applied to scorpion stings if you should be so unlucky as to have that problem.

Regardless of purpose, the seed is tasty.

So here's what you do:

General Spicy Goodness

Put a couple tablespoons of cumin, a tablespoon of caraway, a few black peppercorns and a few coriander seeds into a dry skillet on medium heat (this is called "chonking"...I'll talk about that later). Shake it up. When the cumin seeds take on a little brownness, take it off the heat and put these spices into an empty peppermill. Voila - you have an all-around good spicing that you can grind over just about anything to add some zing...and make your food more digestible.

Chicken 'n Cheese

Grind this over some chicken breasts with a little salt and rub it in. Heat it up in a saute pan until golden brown on both sides and cooked to your liking. Pop a couple slices of Swiss cheese on top and cover for a couple minutes until the cheese is fully melted.

Serve with a some roasted fingerling potatoes and the vegetable of your choice for a delicious meal.

Try and enjoy. Until next time.

*Betsey