OFF THE SHELF
Squeezable herb, spice flavors pricey but convenient
By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor
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| Gourmet Garden Herb & Spice Blends squeeze-tubes can be kept in the refrigerator for up to three months.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser |
That's the advertising tag for a group of products new to the Hawai'i market from Australia. Gourmet Garden Herb & Spice Blends are squeeze-tubes of commonly used flavors: basil, ginger, garlic, chili, lemongrass and others.
Formulated by the 300-year-old British Pepper and Spice Co., Britain's largest supplier of herbs and spices, the blends can be stored in the freezer for up to six months and the refrigerator for up to three months. And they're squeezable right out of the freezer. They're made primarily from herbs and flavorings grown in Queensland, Australia.
These aren't the only products of their kind on the market. I've written here before about garlic, tomato and basil concentrates imported from Italy. These are different in that they are packaged in see-through plastic and offer more varieties.
I found the flavors quite true to the fresh elements, although perhaps a bit on the sweet side (sugars are used in the formulations, along with oils, in some cases, and citric acids, sodium and gums).
Like their Italian cousins, the Gourmet Garden blends are pricey — $4.99 per 4-ounce tube at Safeway, the only chain here that is carrying them. They measure part for part with fresh (1 teaspoon Gourmet Garden basil or equals 1 teaspoon chopped basil, for example).
Because of the price, I don't recommend them for everyday use, but I do plan to throw a tube of each in my freezer because they come in handy when you've run out of garlic or the only ginger in the house is dried up like a prune. The other day, for example, I needed to make a quick weekend lunch but hadn't done the week's grocery shopping yet. Some frozen saimin, a little leftover homemade broth and several good squirts of the garlic and ginger blends, along with a splash of shoyu, made a flavorful hot soup in minutes.
