By Jackie Sayet From The Genuine Kitchen

Back home in the Design District [Miami], Niven shared a preview of the magic [being prepared on Grand Cayman – see iNews story “Niven’s Spice Island of the Cayman Kind”] going along for the ride in two spice mixes, homemade sev (gram flour passed through the tiniest crank-run extruder imaginable,) and pani puri, sun-dried chips made from semolina flour and flash fried before our eyes into a crispy hollow vessel for something delicious.  In India, it’s typically a potato or aloo filling with tamarind water and cilantro, a refreshing street food treat!  One of the spice mixes is for his Local Vegetable Byriani, a pot-”roasted” or “fried” rice dish usually made with basmati, sometimes a protein, and spices.  Niven’s combines black cardamom, cinnamon, clove, tumeric, black pepper, coridander, cumin and dried mango powder, a special ingredient often found perking up chaats (savory street food snacks!)  The other intoxicating mixture is for grilled leg of lamb, including fennel seed, star anise, and something a little more exotic than we are used to but now want to get to know – fenugreek.  This plant is cultivated worldwide and used most commonly in Indian cuisine for its seeds, used in the preparation of pickles, vegetable dishes, daals, and spice mixes like this one, imparting a savory sweetness that is hard to describe but deliciously present in the background.   It is also used as an herb (dried or fresh leaves) and vegetable (fresh leaves, sprouts, and microgreens.)

Boy are we sad to miss out on our gentle Indian’s island adventure, and even more fearful of the hunger pangs that will be inspired by his Instagram, but maybe, if we are lucky, some of these dishes will creep back to home base!  Actually we don’t need luck. We have Niven.

For more on this story go to:

http://thegenuinekitchen.com/2013/11/19/nivens-spice-island-of-the-cayman-kind/

See iNews Cayman related story published Nov 20 2013 “Niven’s Spice Island of the Cayman Kind – Wed (20) & Thu (21)” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/nivens-spice-island-of-the-cayman-kind-wed-20-thu-21/