The ultimate kitchen reference, The Spice Companion is the instinctual cook's guide to the world of spice usage written by Kashmiri-Australian spice mistress, Sarina Kamini. This alphabetised reference details the taste profiles and culinary uses of 57 spices, alongside sections of the function of spice categories, detailed information on 11 specific fats and their usage, as well as practical tips on how to use Eastern spices in Western culinary settings. Learn about spice function via the section on spice categories. And further understand the important role of the palate. The Spice Companion includes entrance points of information from the most inexperienced of cooks, to culinary professionals in an easy to read format and straightforward writing style that encourages stovetop experimentation. Learn about the spices of India and South Asia in order to bring a taste of excitement to every meal. The Spice Companion includes six colour illustrations and makes an ideal gift for the food enthusiast, a great starter book for young cooks, and a stovetop stalwart for the dedicated home chef.

For Sarina Kamini's Kashmiri family, food is love, love is faith, and faith is family. It's cause for total emotional devastation when, ten years after her Australian mother is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, unaddressed grief turns the spice of this young food writer's heritage to ash and her prayers to poison. At her lowest ebb. Sarina's Ammi's typed-up cooking notes become a recipe for healing, her progress in the kitchen marked by her movement through bitterness, grief and loneliness-her daal that is too fiery and lumpen; the raita, too sharp; her play with salt that pricks and burns. In teaching herself how to personalise tradition and spirituality through spice, Sarina creates space to reconsider her relationship with Hinduism and God in a way that allows room for questions. She learns forgiveness of herself for being different, and comes to accept that family means change and challenge as much as acceptance and love.

For Sarina Kamini's Kashmiri family, food is love, love is faith, and faith is family. It's cause for total emotional devastation when, ten years after her Australian mother is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, unaddressed grief turns the spice of this young food writer's heritage to ash and her prayers to poison. At her lowest ebb. Sarina's Ammi's typed-up cooking notes become a recipe for healing, her progress in the kitchen marked by her movement through bitterness, grief and loneliness-her daal that is too fiery and lumpen; the raita, too sharp; her play with salt that pricks and burns. In teaching herself how to personalise tradition and spirituality through spice, Sarina creates space to reconsider her relationship with Hinduism and God in a way that allows room for questions. She learns forgiveness of herself for being different, and comes to accept that family means change and challenge as much as acceptance and love.

The ultimate kitchen reference, The Spice Companion is the instinctual cook's guide to the world of spice usage written by Kashmiri-Australian spice mistress, Sarina Kamini. This alphabetised reference details the taste profiles and culinary uses of 57 spices, alongside sections of the function of spice categories, detailed information on 11 specific fats and their usage, as well as practical tips on how to use Eastern spices in Western culinary settings. Learn about spice function via the section on spice categories. And further understand the important role of the palate. The Spice Companion includes entrance points of information from the most inexperienced of cooks, to culinary professionals in an easy to read format and straightforward writing style that encourages stovetop experimentation. Learn about the spices of India and South Asia in order to bring a taste of excitement to every meal. The Spice Companion includes six colour illustrations and makes an ideal gift for the food enthusiast, a great starter book for young cooks, and a stovetop stalwart for the dedicated home chef.