I admit it – I have an ingredient fetish. My husband constantly accuses me of taking over our limited refrigerator and pantry space with an overabundance of exotic condiments and ingredients. My reaction is, of course, to deny deny deny, but I do admit that when I see a new vegetable at the farmer’s market, I can rarely resist picking one up to see what I can do with it.
As you can imagine, I was particularly intrigued when I caught whiff of a new spice mix while watching last season’s Top Chef (and if you weren’t watching, why not? It’s great TV). Chef Jamie Lauren of San Francisco’s Absinthe talked about her “secret ingredient”, vadouvan, and my ears immediately perked up. What was this mysterious spice? And where could I get some?
I ordered some from the Spice House, which is one of my favorite resources for dried herbs and spices. The Spice House’s vadouvan is more of a powder than the other ones I’ve seen, without the fried onion look, but it does contain onions and garlic. I decided to make an onion based butternut squash soup to boost the onion flavor and showcase the spice. The good news for you is that this recipe can be easily recreated with another curry powder, if you are not a spice fetishist. However, I don’t promise it’s going to have quite the same smoky sweet onion flavor.
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