OpenTube

The Woman Who Teaches Michelin Chefs How to Use Spice

elda

78,865 views

This masterclass on spices and how to use them, mix them and understand them is requested by some of the World's best restaurants for all their chefs. Ren is a marvel - one of the industry's great, great teachers with a passion that is rare - and has changed how so many of us appreciate spices. We went down to see her at her cooking school in London and left smiling from ear to ear. She's just bloody great!

renspantry.com

She created a spice box for you to buy to taste her spices for yourselves - check out all of her fantastic produce.

Ren's warehouse unfortunately suffered a fire shortly after filming and she is currently busy restocking to go again. Please be patient with any orders.

The fiery pepper mix we made will soon be available. It needs a name tho... suggestions in the comments below!

-----

Thank you to our channel members!

Louqash, Richard Palmer, Paul Krause, 장승준, Kebab, Con, Thembitter, Gary Bell-Bray

Gracjan Giergielewicz, Magnus Brinch, Max L, Angus Dolan, Matthieu Beudaert, napoleon jerd, Giorgos Rossides, alfie dakin, paul doyle, Ronald, Thompson, Christoph Mandus, cooper67, Dennis Zuidam | Heel Holland Bakt, Traldar LP, pustefix77, Lewis Solomon, That. Daniel, Shoon Robben, Marc Eames, Viral, Planet, Ruslan Pseunok, john nelson, Panfried_buns, Shwazy 12, Tiago Batista, Nicholas Shea, Steffen F., Starkade, K/\Y, MrSuits, VaskarPahari, Shane Copeland, Mohammed E, cp24, Ruddy Udder, Maciej Szpyra, Horus Food Club, Nortonscribe, K＆i Adventures, Emanuel Hess, Laszlo Horvath, Tim Nolan

-----

Chapters:
0:00 Into
0:33 Get to Know Your Spices
39:14 How to Use Your Spices
49:03 The World of Peppers
57:09 The Chicken Curry
1:00:29 Making a Pepper Mix
1:05:02 Magic Paste
1:12:15 Simeon Gets in Trouble
1:12:25 Curry Tasting

Recipe for the Chicken Curry
30 g oil
30 g ghee (or clarified butter)
2 chicken breasts (chopped)
30 g yoghurt
1 can chopped tomatoes (400 g)
1 red onion - sliced
3 cloves garlic - minced
2 inch of cassia bark
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric
Salt (to taste)
Magic Paste (to taste)
Pepper Mix (to taste)
fresh coriander (cilantro)

Magic Paste
(Not Ren's but similar)
4 red chillies (deseeded)
4 green chillies
2 scotch bonnet (deseeded)
100 g ginger (slice thinly across the fibres to make blending easier)
100 g shallots
3 spring onion (remove any grit)
100 g oil

1. Put the oil in a pan and put on a medium heat.
2. Blitz all the ingredients to a paste then cook in the oil until softened and fragrant.
3. Use.

Pepper Mix
We mixed:
1 part lemon verbena pepper
1 part smoked green pepper
1 part voatsperiferi
1 part black pepper
2 parts fennel

0. Take your chicken and add the yoghurt with 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp of the pepper mix, and 1 pinch of turmeric.
1. Heat the fats in a pan on a medium/high heat, the oil is hot enough when a cumin seed immediately starts to 'fizz'. Once hot enough add the cassia, fennel and cumin and fry for 20-30 seconds or so. Be gentle!
2. Add your onions a little salt and allow to caramelise, stir occasionally (not constantly like I tried to)
3. Add your tomatoes, the turmeric, 1 tsp of pepper mix and cook. Idea is to have this reduce and thicken to a rich, almost split (where the oil separates out), curry base. Ren says this should tastes slightly too sweet, too salty, as it's going to get diluted from here.
4. Add the chicken to the curry base, put the heat on medium and cover. The chicken will release its juices and thin the sauce
5. Once the chicken has cooked through, taste for seasoning and heat. Adjust with the magic paste, pepper mix and salt.
6. Add the fresh coriander and serve with your favourite accompaniments.

Music:

Bisiesto by Hiracutch @ch
Bisiesto by Hiracutch / hiracutch
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://www.audiolibrary.com.co/hirac...
Music promoted by Audio Library • Bisiesto – Hiracutch (No Copyright Music)

Evasion by KV @icprod
Music: Evasion by KV / kvmusicprod
License: Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0
Free Download / Stream: @ion
Music promoted by Audio Library: • Electronic, Retro, Groove (No Copyright Music)
Download here! @ds/

20 Comments

@eldarestaurant Creator 3 months ago (edited) Pinned

Huge thank you to Ren for sharing this with us. It's a long video so chapters are here to help you to watch it in chunks.

0:00 Intro
0:33 Get to Know Your Spices
39:14 How to Use Your Spices
49:03 The World of Peppers
57:09 The Chicken Curry
1:00:29 Making a Pepper Mix
1:05:02 Magic Paste
1:12:15 Simeon Gets in Trouble
1:12:25 Curry Tasting

@robertsteinberger 2 months ago

This is the type of quality content you usually only find behind paywalls. Incredibly helpful! Thank you for making these types of videos!

@laskatz3626 1 month ago

Thank you wonderful lady. I’m a 74 year old gringo lady but was born in El Paso and raised on Mexican food. I’ve been cooking beans and making burritos my whole adult life. I also make tamales. And corn tortillas. I can also make flour tortillas but usually buy them. You’ve given me so much good information in this video that I didn’t know, that I will put into practice.

@Reese-sq1cj 2 months ago

This is by FAR the best explanation of spices I have ever seen in my life

@SmellyBodega 2 months ago

I think what people realize she’s teaching how to be conscious of your decisions and to work with intention. “ what is my goal, why am I doing this, what is the effect of this action” skills that serve any industry and person their whole life.

@TheSirse 2 months ago (edited)

She really, really knows her shit. To the point about better ingredients: Here in South Africa it’s so difficult to get proper herbs and spices now. Even simple and cheap stuff like Oregano is adulterated with Olive leaves. I’ve resorted to growing my own of the items that I use most often. It takes surprisingly little space.

@angeldark8812 1 month ago

Absolutely loved this masterclass in spices! My Fijian granny taught me how to make a curry with spices. I was surprised at how many spices she used but that’s why I’ve always loved her curries ❤

@soholingo 3 months ago

I am only 5 minutes into this video and I already know I am goi g to need to watch this at least 5 more times. So much good Info! Thanks for this !

@Rmystayfun 2 months ago

Although I am of Indian origin, my perspective was shaped as a child by assisting my working mother who strongly believed in doing things thoroughly. Our process involved meticulous washing and sun-drying of our spices, followed by hand-roasting. We then had them ground at a mill, which she personally inspected to ensure the correct fineness for our family's recipes. Our cooking process was always quite involved.
is it worth it, definitely.......🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
It was a high-quality production.

@Malenaa1980 1 month ago

Oh this is beautiful, I feel I am in my grandmothers kitchen. 💕

@bayimahole6406 2 months ago

Thanks for the lesson and great tips. I learnt about the French masala (first time) which I will make from scratch soon then also make the sauce. My great mistake was over cooking the spices then they do become bitter. She counted 4 times. I have great ingredients but was overcooking. Another addition was mixing the high heat oil with ghee. Got it. Am off to make my own chicken curry now…👏🏾 great episode. I am energised by it.

@Theshannonkatearchives 2 months ago

Very happy to see someone who says this collection is ‘some’ of their spices. I have more than anyone else I’ve ever met and yes, I do use all
Of them and yes, I have tasted al of them :)

@SaxonRanger94 1 month ago

@eldarestaurant Seriously guys, Thank you! It was great to have a much longer video and something like this feels like members only content. I appreciate it. And Thank you Ren!

@bouchonaise124135 2 months ago

This type of content is invaluable to both pro chefs and homecooks, THANK YOU and please keep putting stuff like this out and this channel will quickly rise to the top.

@brysongrayy 2 months ago

Recently tried tempering black peppercorns for peppercorn sauce. I ground them and used a sieve to separate the fine powder from the larger pieces. I toasted the big pieces (for what I now know was far too long) and added the fine powder at the end. All of the volatile aromas you cook off in the classic version were gently warmed through and diffused into the sauce. I was shocked how much fruitiness came through that didn’t with green alone, especially because the fine size dispersing better than whole berries. It all clicked and she’s right about everything!

@SaxonRanger94 1 month ago

Why can’t I have friends like these guys to food nerd out with..

@4nswers 2 months ago

Growing up, I used to sneak to the kitchen late at night and smell the spices. Tasting and smelling ingredients is so important to build a palette.

@Cr8nhavock 3 months ago (edited)

I really like Ren's reinforcement of tasting everything but in spice form. And she has a great explanation on why you should be very mindful of how to stage cooking your spices and how many times etc -- an intuition I had developed by watching others but didn't really know why. My first eye opening experience with spices was back in 2019 when a friend returned from India and let me try fennel seeds, tumeric, dried chilis and more that were just so much more fragrant and flavorful than what I was used to. Another channel introduced me to Mala Market which was also surprising because they have very high quality szechuan ingredients like aged doubanjiang or numbing peppercorns and vinegar which are pricey but hugely worth it. Unfortunately Ren's Pantry by the looks of it doesn't deliver to the US or I'd happily place an order. Thanks for the class!

@bigoldwombat 2 months ago

Ren is amazing! Could listen to her all day!

@windinseinemhaar6630 1 month ago

One of my goals is managing to get out the whole spice pieces out of the dish for eating. Lately I had loads of broken curry leaves in my curry - killed me.