by Tom Stobart
Although sultanas have usually been cleaned of grit, it is still best to wash them. Pour boiling water on them, leave it a moment, and then take the sultanas out with a perforated spoon to avoid disturbing any sand, which will have fallen to the bottom. Washing sultanas also plumps them a little, but may slightly reduce the flavour.
[Sultana – French: raisin de Smyrne German: Sultanine Italian: sultanina Spanish: paso de Corinto]
SUMAC is a shrub or tree which belongs to the genus Rhus. This includes poison ivy (R. toxicodendron) and other poisonous plants, some decorative species well known to gardeners, and a number of useful plants that provide Japanese lacquer, Copal varnish and tannin for leather. The sumac of Mediterranean Europe (R. coriaria), also known as the Elm-leaved sumac or Sicilian sumac, has hairy fruits, which are dark red to purple when ripe. The hairs are rich in *malic acid, and the berries have a sour and pleasantly astringent taste. They are an important souring agent in the cooking of some areas of the Middle East, notably Lebanon, and are also used to make a sour drink: the dried berries are infused in cold water for 20 minutes and then the juice is squeezed out. This is both refreshing and a useful medicine, recommended for ‘Beirut belly’. Lebanese homes traditionally kept a supply of the dried berries, which had preferably been gathered in the mountains where the quality is best. I have only once managed to buy dried sumac berries in London and the quality was disappointing. However, as sumac grows in gardens, there is nothing to prevent experiment. The berries should be ripe and of the correct species.
In North America, there are a number of sumacs, but the Scarlet sumac (R. glabra), a familiar wayside tree, has large, dense clusters of red berries that are covered in acid hairs like the European equivalent; they are wholesome and can be used to make a refreshing drink, as well as probably being a satisfactory substitute in Lebanese cooking. One poisonous sumac, which could possibly confuse, has white berries in strings. Sumacs with smooth, hairless fruits should be avoided, as they are likely to be poisonous.
[Sumac – French: sumac German: Färberbaum, Sumach Italian: sommacco Spanish: zumaque]
SUNFLOWER. The Annual sunflower (Helianthus annuus) has long been grown as a crop, particularly in Russia, Rumania, Hungary and Bulgaria, but increasingly so in other countries, and today sunflowers can be seen in fields almost anywhere that there are suitably warm summers – even sometimes in southern England. In countries where people are in the habit of nibbling to pass the time, salted sunflower seeds are popular. (In Spain, my children are always nibbling pipas, salted sunflower seeds that are sold in packets.)
However, the main use of sunflower seeds is as a source of oil which makes up about half of their weight. Sunflower oil is light and has a high percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids and a low percentage of saturated fatty acids. With safflower oil, it is one of the best oils for use in cholesterol lowering diets. Because of these qualities, it has become quite widely available, but the product sold in supermarkets is apparently stripped because it is very nondescript in flavour. The cold-pressed oil, which is taken off without heat, is inclined to be expensive, but is an excellent oil for salads. The second pressings, made after heating the residues, are good for most other cooking purposes.
Sunflowers probably originated in the Americas, but exactly where is in some doubt. They have been cultivated in Europe since the mid-16th century. Young buds of sunflowers are edible and can at a pinch be used in salads; they are best boiled. Recently, machine-shelled sunflower seeds have come on to the market and open up new possibilities for those who like to experiment, as they are a healthy and nutritious food.
[Sunflower – French: girasol, tournesol German: Sonnenblume Italian: girasole Spanish: girasol, mirasol]
SURAM. See yam (elephant’s foot).
SWAMP SUGAR PEAR. See rowan.
SWEATING in cookery means heating gently for a short time in butter (or other oil or fat) without any liquid so that the substance being cooked does not fry or brown. lt is a process generally applied to green vegetables or to onions, and is usually maintained until the vegetable becomes soft.
SWEDE and RUTABAGA are members of the same species as *rape (Brassica napus) and are grown for their roots. In Scotland and the US, swedes are called turnips. In general, Swedes (var. napobrassica) are larger than turnips and have yellow flesh, although there are sorts in which the flesh is white (called French turnips in the US). The skins may be purple, white or, in the rutabaga (var. rutabaga), yellow. Whatever its colour, a swede or rutabaga can always be distinguished from a turnip, which is smooth right up to the base of the leaves, instead of having a number of concentric ridges or scars at the top.
Swedes are more recent in origin than turnips, and in spite of their name (which is shortened from Swedish turnip), probably originated in Bohemia in the 17th century. Although they are similar to turnips in flavour, opinions as to their culinary merit are sharply divided between those who claim that swedes are best as food for cattle and those who find them delicious and indeed superior to turnips because sweeter and with a dryer texture.
[Swede – French: rutabaga, chou navet German: Streckrübe Italian: rapa svedese Spanish: rabo sueco]
SWEETBREADS are soft, white, and in themselves rather flavourless, but are regarded as a delicacy. They are, or should be, the thymus glands of young animals –usually calves or lambs. The thymus is large in young animals, but in older animals it virtually disappears. The glands are situated in the chest, and their function is concerned with the immunity of the young animal and the production of white blood cells. Sweetbreads are also taken from the pancreas, and other glands, including the testes, are sometimes passed off as thymus. These are all good, but are not true sweetbreads.
To prepare sweetbreads, soak them for an hour or so in cold water to remove any blood. Then trim them and poach them in stock or court-bouillon for about 10 minutes. After that, cook them in one of the many ways that are particularly to be found in books on French cooking.
[Sweetbreads – French: ris de veau, ris d’agneau German: Bröschen, Kalbsbries, Kalbsmilch Italian: animella Spanish: fechecillas, mollejas]
SWEET CICELY (Myrrhis odorata).This old-fashioned herb is a stout umbelliferous plant with white flowers, hollow stems and a taste which is supposed to be myrrh-like, but is something between anise and lovage. lt is little used these days, but the leaves and seeds can be used as a flavouring, and the roots can be boiled for eating as a vegetable or cold as a salad. It can be found wild over most of Western Europe; in Britain it is mainly found in northern England and southern Scotland.
[Sweet Cicely – French: cerfeuil musque German: wohlriechende Süssdolde Italian: mirride odoroso Spanish: perifollo oloroso]
SWEETCORN. See maize
SWEET FLAG. See calamus.
SWEET GALE. See bog myrtle.
SWEET LAUREL See bay.
SWEET MARJORAM or knotted marjoram (Origanum majorana) is a perennial labiate herb, a native of Africa that is cultivated in Southern Europe. Further north, it is grown as an annual. It is beautifully sweet smelling and one of the most important culinary herbs in European cooking. As the delicate flavour is destroyed by prolonged cooking, marjoram is best added shortly before the dish is ready or used in dishes such as omelettes which are cooked rather little. A closely related herb is *oregano, which does not have the same sweetness. Nor does Pot marjoram (O. onites), which is much more hardy. It is useful in strongly flavoured dishes in which the delicate taste of sweet marjoram would be wasted.
[Sweet marjoram – French: marjolaine, origan German: Marienkraut, Marjoran Italian: maggiorana Spanish: majorana]
SWEET PEPPER, bell pepper or pimento. Both sweet peppers (Capsicum annuum) and *chilli peppers came from tropical America and have been cultivated for so long that their origins are muddled. Opinions differ as to whether they should be regarded as one or more species, and the travelling cook will be further confused to come on large horn-shaped peppers which are mild and sweet as well as o
thers, identical in shape, that almost blister your fingers when you touch them. Some long, chilli shaped varieties (like the American Cubanelle and Sweet Banana) are actually sweet peppers. The squarish and tomato-shaped varieties, commonly called bell peppers, are usually sweet, but some have quite a nip to them. The colour range is from green (there are pale and dark green types) ripening through yellow and orange streaks to red; there are also varieties which are yellow when ripe, or variegated, or even almost black, and there are parchment-coloured varieties used for pickling, which might be called either hot-sweet or cool-chilli. Sweet peppers also vary in flavour- some modern greenhouse varieties are almost tasteless while others have a superb capsicum flavour which develops especially when they are roasted. Thickness of flesh is another factor to be noticed – some are thin-fleshed and others juicy – and the skin of some (especially commercial varieties for export) is often thick and leathery.
Although sweet peppers have been established in the cooking of the countries around the Mediterranean, in Portugal, the Balkans and Rumania (where I first ate them) for some time, they are late comers to most European cooking because the first varieties of sweet pepper to be introduced were rather fiery and unreliable. In any case, they were grown only where there was a very hot climate. lt was only with the development of new varieties that they could spread further north. Today they are grown under glass even in Britain. In the 19th century, British and even French cookery books scarcely mention sweet peppers. A similar evolution has been going on in the US. On the other hand, in very hot countries like India there tends to be a greater love of very hot chillies (sweet peppers are called Kashmire mirch – Kashmir peppers in Hindi), leaving the sweet peppers for areas that like less spicy food.
Both sweet and hot peppers have very little food value and, although they have a notable content of vitamin C, their main gastronomic role is to provide flavour. They are also conveniently hollow and make splendid containers for stuffings. So widely used are peppers these days that it is difficult to think what Spanish, Italian, Chinese and many other national cuisines could have been like without them. Dried sweet peppers, *paprika from Hungary and *pimentón from Spain, are crucial to their respective national cuisines.
Before World War II, it would have been possible to find many people in Britain, even those claiming to be gastronomically sophisticated, who had never eaten a sweet pepper and did not know how they should be prepared. Now peppers are a routine food, at least raw in salads. It is unfortunate that so many of the varieties sold commercially taste more of pea-pods than of fine sweet peppers; others are bitter and overwhelming unless used only in small quantity. Finding a good – and suitable – variety, makes an enormous difference to the dishes in which peppers are used. For stuffing, cooks often like flat bottomed, boxy peppers which will stand upright; the stem end is cut off and the seeds and septa removed before stuffing. Peppers that have to lie on their sides are best slit down the side, cleaned, stuffed and left with the stalk end intact. Peppers to be marinated in vinaigrette or olive oil should be grilled, preferably by throwing them on to hot charcoal, peeled and put to marinate whole, with the seeds intact as this gives them the very best flavour. If they are to be preserved under oil, the seeds can be removed later.
Some dishes require particular types of sweet pepper. In Spain, for example, Romesco sauce is only authentic if it is made with the elongated, top shaped Romesco peppers that are grown around Tarragona. Among other Spanish peppers, ñoras, which are round and (like Romescos) only slightly piquant, may be found in their dried form in every Spanish market; they are the flavouring of dishes a la vizcaina and are also called pimientos choiceros – the peppers in *chorizo sausages (in which pimentón is also used).
Stuffed Sweet Peppers (India)
Boil and mash 4 potatoes. Slice and fry an onion in a dessertspoon of fat- ideally Indian clarified butter (ghee) – until it is soft. Add the potato, and 1 teaspoon *garam masala, ½ teaspoon turmeric, 1 tablespoon mango powder (amchur) plus salt to taste. Slit 6 smallish sweet peppers and remove the seeds, preferably through the sides. Stuff them with the potato mixture. Heat another tablespoon of fat in a frying pan. Put in the stuffed peppers with a little water. Sprinkle with salt and cover with a lid. Cook slowly until the peppers are soft.
If amchur is not available, use lemon juice to sour the stuffing, but the flavour will not be the same. Amchur is used in many other Indian dishes as a souring and flavouring agent
[Sweet Pepper – French: poivron German: Ziegenpfeffer Italian: peperone Spanish: pimiento]
SWEET POTATO (Ipomoea batatas) is a tuber formed on a plant of the convolvulus family. It is native to tropical America but has spread all over the tropics, where, with yam, cassava and taro, it forms the basic starchy staple of many poor people. Sweet potatoes also have some importance in the Mediterranean countries, and now, due mainly to the influx of immigrants, they are available as imports in most places in Britain. There are two main types, the dry. yellow-fleshed and mealy varieties, and the softer, more watery and generally sweeter white fleshed varieties, which are more favoured in the tropics. The skin may be white, red or purple.
Sweet potatoes are grown in the US, mainly in Louisiana, North Carolina and Georgia. There are many ways in which they are prepared, and sometimes they are even used mashed in cakes and sweet dishes. Perhaps the simplest and best way to treat them is to peel them and cook them (for about an hour) in the pan with roasting meat, having first sprinkled them well with brown sugar, butter and a pinch of cinnamon – the sweet potato is not quite sweet enough without added sugar. They are also delicious baked in their jackets. They do not store as well as ordinary potatoes, but can be kept for a week or more in the larder. They must not be stored where frost can reach them.
[Sweet Potato – French: patate douce German: Batate Italian: potato Spanish: batata]
SWEET SOP. See custard apple.
SWEET WOODRUFF (Gafium odoratum) is a woodland herb, with white flowers, which grows on chalky soil over most of Europe and in Britain. When crushed, the plant gives off an aromatic smell of new mown hay (caused by a substance called coumarin) which is intensified when it is dried. Sweet woodruff is an essential ingredient in the German Maitrank (May drink), which is made by infusing the herb in Rhine wine, and it is used for similar purposes in other countries, including the US (where it goes into May-wine punch).
[Sweet Woodruff – French: glycérie German: Waldmeister Italian: asperula, stellina odorosa Spanish: aspérula olorosa]
SWISS CHARD. See beets.
SWORD BEAN. See jack bean.
SWORDFISH (Xiphias gladius) is among the largest of the bony fishes and is found in all oceans. It may weigh 70-100 kg (155-225 lb), and it is possibly the fastest of all fish, being able to do over 100 km (60 miles) per hour. Its head is extended forward into a long point, or sword. When angered, it is formidable because it uses its sword as a ram, although normally the sword is used sideways to stun or maim the fish or cephalopods which are its prey. The swordfish has excellent, rather firm white flesh, and is eaten everywhere it is caught, often grilled in steaks or en brochette. However, there is a much greater variety of recipes from Sicily and Calabria because the swordfish migrate along those coasts in the breeding season and have been caught there since ancient times. (Normally this fish is a loner, not tolerating the presence of other fish, and keeping to itself in deep water.) As with the tunny, Mediterranean people regard the belly as the best part. Swordfish are also caught in Turkey, netted in season in the Bosphorus, and it is from here that the delicacy of smoked kilic (swordfish) has become known; it has been claimed as the equal of smoked salmon when at its best, although the ordinary smoked swordfish packaged in oil that is found in European supermarkets is not more than very nice. It has also been likened to smoked *sturgeon. Before smoking, the pieces of boned swordfish are first salted in barrels, pressed down under a wooden disc and weighted with a stone. The salting is short –12-18 hours – after which the pi
eces are washed in strong brine and hung in a current of air in a shady place to dry for 2-3 days. Finally, the pieces are smoked for 10-12 hours and are then ready for use.
The product may be known as mersine. Blue marlin (Makaira nigricans) and White marlin (M. albida) are similar large fish that are found in the Caribbean and off the East Coast of the US; they are less good to eat than the swordfish.
[Swordfish – French: espadon German: Schwertfisch Italian: pesce spada Spanish: pez espada]
SYRUP. See corn syrup, golden syrup, maple syrup.
SZECHWAN PEPPER. See Chinese pepper.
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TABASCO SAUCE. A hot chilli sauce, with a very characteristic flavour, made from the tabasco variety of chilli pepper, which is said to have been brought to Louisiana from Mexico in 1868.Tabasco, which contains chillies, spirit vinegar and salt, is one of the world’s most famous bottled sauces. It is found on every cocktail bar for use in a Bloody Mary, and many like it on shellfish, particularly oysters. Imitations are inferior.
TAGLIATELLE. See pasta.
TAHINA has emerged from its ethnic origins and become internationally known in recent years. It is an oily paste made of *sesame seeds, which have usually been roasted first to give a strong nutty taste, and is a staple in most of the countries around the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Sesame is difficult to grind or pound at home to the required fine oily state, but tahina is generally available anywhere where there are Greek or Lebanese shops. Typical uses for tahina are to be found in Mrs Khayat’s lovely book Food from the Arab World (Khayats, Beirut, 1959) in which, for instance, she gives recipes for homous bi tahina, a dip to use with Arab bread; and for taratour bi taheeni, a mayonnaise-like sauce in which lemon juice and tahina are emulsified and flavoured with salt and garlic – a sort of Middle East aïoli, which is excellent for salads and fish. There is even a variant on the *aubergine purée that is sometimes called poorman’s caviar, in which tahina plays a role. I may say that my copy of Mrs. Khayat’s book was heavily annotated and exclamation marked by the famous Lebanese belly dancer Leila (whose navel appeared in From Russia With Love), a fiery lady, who did not approve of the amount of garlic suggested by Mrs Khayat. I like the full amount of garlic myself, but in this type of dish the quantities are very much ‘to taste’, though never ‘if liked’.