Free Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook by Aki Kamozawa, H. Alexander Talbot

foil. Line up the edges of the top and bottom pieces of foil and fold them together, sealing the edges and creating another package around the wrapped leeks. Repeat the wrapping with the remaining leeks. Transfer any leftover vinaigrette from the pan to a small bowl, cover, and refrigerate. Put the leek packages onto the grill and close the lid. Cook the leeks for 20 to 25 minutes. The packages will swell with steam. To check the leeks, remove one package from the grill and carefully unwrap it. The leeks should be tender and lightly charred.
    Remove the packages from the grill and let the leeks cool for 10 minutes. Open up each parcel and remove the leeks. Cut them into 1-inch (2.5 cm) slices and put them in a bowl. Add the chopped tarragon leaves to the leeks along with the reserved vinaigrette. Toss the leeks, taste for seasoning, and transfer to a serving bowl. Serve warm.

HERBS & SPICES
We love working with herbs and spices in the kitchen; dried spices add depth of flavor, while fresh herbs add brightness with a slight bitter undertone. Many spices are known to add a bit of stimulation as well. Peppercorns, chiles, ginger, cinnamon, alliums, mints, mustards, anise, and horseradish—these are all ingredients that prickle the tongue and wake up your senses. Herbs and spices add essential oils that can help slow down oxidation, aid digestion, and make your food taste better.
There are certain spices that we always have at hand. For baking we like cinnamon sticks and ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, ground ginger, ground cardamom, and vanilla beans. Boyajian makes some wonderful citrus oils that have intense flavor, and we have tiny bottles of lemon, orange, and lime oils in our refrigerator. We are big fans of using Aftelier essential oils (available from Williams-Sonoma) in both sweet and savory recipes for the intense flavors that they can add in small doses. We love granulated garlic and onion powder. They are not a substitute for fresh; rather we often use the fresh and dried together in a dish to intensify their flavor. Other spices we like to have on hand are a variety of peppercorns, single varietal chile powders, sweet and smoked paprika, crushed red pepper flakes, ground cumin, fennel seeds, caraway seeds, star anise, and mustard powder. Beyond that our spice cabinet ebbs and swells according to what we are craving and cooking at any given time.
It’s rare for us to use a single spice in a recipe, preferring instead to build a combination of flavors that work together to support a dish. You don’t necessarily have to have a large number of flavors to make an impact, although there are many cases where spice blends involving many ingredients, like curry, are the backbone of a dish. Two or three supporting flavors are usually enough to make the primary ingredients sing. Think of building cocktails and how a dash of bitters can make the difference between something ordinary and something truly worth savoring.
When stuck for inspiration, we will open up a bunch of spices and smell them while thinking about the dish we’re working on. It’s an odd habit that always seems to work. The aromas are a guiding hand for what flavors will go well in the dish. Some ingredients trigger an immediate positive or negative reaction while others need to be sniffed a few times, perhaps in combination with spices we’ve already chosen before we decide.
There are some wonderful spice blends out there that have done the work for you. You’ll see some of them in various recipes throughout the book. Most of them can be found in good supermarkets or gourmet stores like Williams-Sonoma, and occasionally even in a HomeGoods store for a fraction of their original cost. If you don’t cook often enough to warrant a full spice cabinet, since spices do not last forever, a few good blends are a great addition to your pantry. We like to have a version of the North African ras el hanout on hand because its blend of sweet and savory