Wet Spice Mixes

Wet spice mixes form the basis and provide the soul for much of my cooking. These preparations combine spices and aromatics such as garlic, onion, galangal and lemongrass with oil, ghee, tamarind, coconut milk and the like to make a masala, sambal or rempah, for example, that is cooked into food to give added flavour or is used as a condiment. I think of a spice paste as the catalyst that brings everything together to create what can best be described as an oral orgasm. the following preparations have been with me throughout my cooking life. They are my starting point and I can’t imagine life without them.