Just back from walking the streets of NY where I stumbled into a favorite spice store. Picked up an array of spices and such to test before some upcoming events. One great ingredient difficult to find in Colorado was fresh curry leaves. The question became how to capture the essence of the curry leaves for a remote environment. Well, I turned the corner and there were jaws of raw honey. Bingo. I picked up a jar of buckwheat honey to infuse the curry leaves into and a lighter San Paulito honey which I have now infused with sweet smoked paprika.
We have used honey in the past to capture and carry flavors from black truffle to yuzu or key lime in our sour honey.
It is great to have a distinct honey and then match, marry or fuse it with another flavor which then creates a great flavor base for our cooking.
The smoked paprika honey will be used to lacquer crustaceans and vegetables, more thoughts to come.
The curry leaf-buckwheat honey will be served with our tequila-habanero sea trout roe, labna and curry leaf beignets.
