Malaysia Street Food- Spices

I will from time to time try to post some infos on spices and herbs that are popular and important in Malaysian cooking.

There are four ( Rempah Empat Beradik- "The Four Brothers Spice) main spices:

1. Cloves

There are more about cloves to learned here that as decoration for the buttons of your ginger breadman cookies. Cloves are the dried, unopened, nail-shaped flower buds of the evergreen Syzygium aromaticum. They are reddish-brown in color and have a strong, aromatic flavor and aroma.

Cloves are an important ingredient in the spice blends of Sri Lanka and North India. They are used in garam masala, briyanis, and pickles.

Clove is a key flavor contributor to ketchup and Worchestershire sauce seasoning blends. Chinese and German seasonings also depend on cloves to flavor meats and cookies.

2. Cardamon

Cardamom pods are generally green but are also available in bleached white pod form.

They are dried in the sun or bleached with sulphur fumes.

In Malaysia, the bleached version is more common and I was a bit surprised to see the green variety when I was living in England. Malay cooks use the pods whole instead of powder form.

3. Cinnamon

The flavor of true cinnamon is more subtle and delicate compared to the stronger, spicier cassia.

The light, intricate flavor of Ceylon cinnamon makes it the cinnamon of choice for dishes which do not have a lot of conflicting flavors competing. It will star in such dishes as custard, cinnamon ice cream, Dutch pears, stewed rhubarb, steamed puddings, dessert syrups, or mixed into whipped cream.

4. Star Anise

The spice is the almost ripe, dried, star-shaped multiple fruit of the tree Illicium verum, which is a member of the magnolia family (Magnoliaceae). The small, red-brown, star-shaped fruits contain 6-8 unevenly sized, boat-shaped individual fruits 12-17 mm in length, each containing a glossy brown, egg-shaped seed. The fruits contain the same essential oil as aniseeds.
This spice has the strong taste of liquorice. As it imparts intense flavor, you do not eat the fruit itself, it is discarded because the taste is bitter.