Cooking with Spices

Some of the ingredients for sauce for meatball sandwiches, including several spices in the new jars I bought and filled recently.

My reorganized and expanded spice shelf has made me want to cook with spice. Here are a few of the dishes I've been making:

• West-Indian curried lamb and vegetables without really following a recipe, but starting here.
• Mediterranean food: falafel with a Turkish eggplant salad from Claudia Roden's book Mediterranean Cookery.
• Italian-spiced tomato sauce for meatball sandwiches. No recipe at all, I improvise my tomato sauce.
• And I'm thinking about South American and more Mediterranean experiments.

Curried lamb with carrots, turnips, and coconut milk; served with fresh fruit and vegetables and plum and mango chutneys.
Spices in the curry: ground ginger, curry powder, allspice berries, cumin,red onion, garlic, and canned jalapeno peppers.

Falafel (from Trader Joe's), a Turkish eggplant salad, and a cabbage salad with tahini dressing.
The whole eggplant was charred at 400° until soft, chopped, and mixed with lemon juice, yogurt, parsley, dill.
Garnishes on the eggplant include black olives, tomatoes, red onion. On the side: pita bread, lemon slices, and yogurt.

Meatballs with spiced tomato sauce on toasted buns with melted cheese.