What's Your Favourite Spice?
What's Your Favourite Spice ?
Variety may be the spice of life, but spice adds variety to your food. Some famous persons have had something to say about spice:
"I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation." (George Bernard Shaw)
"An affair now and then is good for a marriage. It adds spice, stops it from getting boring... I ought to know." (Bette Davis)
"We were the Spice Boys." (George Harrison)
It seems to me that here in China, especially in Sichuan Province and neighbouring Chongqing (where I live) the favourite spice is one I cannot handle - little red chili peppers.
My favourite spice is cinnamon.
I put some in hot oatmeal, dust it onto French Toast, put some in my mix for banana blueberry pancakes and spread it on hot buttered toast. I really love cinnamon.
Emeril Lagasse * , a famous American chef, has something to say about cinnamon:
"I can't tell you enough about cinnamon . Cinnamon is an awesome spice to use and it goes great with something like apples in the morning or in a mixture of fruit or in your oatmeal or even in your cereal."
* Emeril John Lagassé III is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality, cookbook author, and National Best Recipe award winner for his ‘Turkey and Hot Sausage Chili’ recipe in 2003. He is a regional James Beard Award winner, known for his mastery of Creole and Cajun cuisine and his self-developed "New New Orleans" style.
So what is YOUR favourite spice, and how do you use it?
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So what is YOUR favourite spice, and how do you use it? (Other than the usual salt and pepper)
chili powder, second to pepper...
Definitely agree with you on cinnamon. I powder a bit into chili, meatloaf, omelets, salads, etc.
I'll try it on an omelette - never thought of that.
My advise is to buy a few dedicated coffee grinders specific to what you grind.
That's a great idea. I used a coffee grinder (cheap) a few times for flax seed. It had to be tossed after that.
I buy big containers of ground cinnamon.
I asked my mom to get me 'some' smoked paprika from our local bulk store. It seems that to my mom, 'some' means the equivalent of a quart size mason jar. So I'm stocked up for about a decade.
By "big", I meant two 350 gram containers at a time. They still last a fairly long time.
Garlic powder, and I use it liberally! To tell the truth, my spice rack would make a chef jealous. I can't say that I have just one favorite because I cook such a wide variety of foods that it necessitates the use of many.
Garlic would have to be my favorite stand alone spice.
I use a mix of basil, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne powder, chili powder, with a smaller proportion of salt. I use it on any kind of meat, potatoes, and some vegetables.
It makes apple pie more delicious, and how can anyone resist fresh baked cinnamon buns?
I meant cinnamon - actually my reply wasn't responsive at all to John's comment - what was I dreaming?
Yeah, garlic powder does make steaks taste better.
Old Bay, I like it on seafood, pork chops, french fries and add to some canned soups,
Is that bay leaf? My wife uses that a lot.
Old Bay is good on many things
I mix Old Bay with plain bread crumbs to coat fish when I fry it.
We use to use Old Bay in Maryland all the time.
Down here though I tried to have it twice. Each time if it sat in that cabinet for any length of time it got some kind of bugs in it.
Hard to say, it really depends on what I'm cooking, but I suppose I lean pretty heavily on basil, bay leaves, turmeric, garlic, cayenne
Dill. Anything is better with dill. I like it in my tomato soup and I like to make a sour cream-dill sauce when I grill salmon. We had a very nice crop growing on the deck this year.
I also like garlic and oregano
Oh yes, freshly picked and chopped dill - I use it for a really simple delicious cold salad - peeled baby shrimp, seedless green grapes, mayonnaise and fresh chopped up dill.
Do a lot of pickling so grow my own dill. It's best fresh.
yes it is
I use a lot of pepper. My gf has at least 5 different salts in the kitchen.
Cayenne pepper. I use it on almost everything I eat.
Grow my own habanero and have won habanero eating contests (the secret is lots of salt).
My favorite spice? the one I'm using at that time. I use so many of them and love them all. I also like to mix things up at times.. Baked a chicken once, mixed up some mushroom soup with garlic, pepper and cinnamon and it was amazing while different.
Garlic is number one by far, usually as garlic powder. I also love paprika, especially smoked paprika. Cinnamon is right up there, too, but I use it for just a few things, unlike garlic which I use often. We used to grow our own sweet basil, which was delicious.
I could never figure out paprika, what it could be good for.
I use paprika and garlic for chicken. Paprika is excellent for chicken. I also use a small dusting of paprika for flavoring on fried eggs along with garlic.
I use it on deviled eggs and potato salad. I use it more for a garnish than a spice
Same.
Depends on the type of paprika. It can be sweet or very, very spicy. I prefer the spicy type.
Me too! I never used it in potato salad, but I might give it a go. But I use it as a spice since I use the Hungarian type.
I'm not even sure what type I have in the cupboard. I only know that I have about 5 or 6 jars of it
I'd have to say freshly cracked mixed pepper corns.
I've started using both Sumac [lemony] that I field harvested last year and Annatto [a peppery spice used in Filipino cuisine] as a change of pace recently.
I thought sumac was poisonous.
There are at least two kinds. As a kid we would find the "lemony" and mix with water...........we thought we were making cheap lemonade LOL
Nope.
"Poison sumac" is the 'common name' for Toxicodendron vernix which is nothing like Rhus typhina commonly known as 'Staghorn Sumac'. Though I have some Staghorn growing on my property, it's not nearly enough to harvest heavily. I leave most of it to feed the birds. I found a patch on the back side of my neighbors 10 acres and get my spice fix from there. Sumac is used quite a bit in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines.
That's the first thing I make after harvesting Sumac. I love lemonade. Ya can't get cheaper than free.
Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning
I put it on everything.
I love that stuff, but can't always find it. Have you tried "Slap ya' mama"?
I haven't tried that, but I will as soon as possible. The name alone makes it worth a try.
Wooo!!! As I said in the article - those little red chili peppers and my stomach don't like each other. However, if it didn't burn my tongue, I did enjoy cajun dishes.
We had a restaurant down here called that.
You know Buzz, it's funny; tomato based spices give me heart burn like there's no tomorrow, but the spices used in Cajun and Creole dishes don't bother me. I thought for sure that when my husband and I went to NOLA last year that I would need to keep antacids with me at all times, but I didn't have to use them once! My daughter killed my esophagus when I was pregnant with her; even pizza gives me terrible acid reflux, but somehow... that food in NOLA didn't. Weird.
That's what made me want to try it too.
I couldn't pick which is my favorite, since they all have a purpose. What I can say is what I don't like and that is anise or fennel. Blech.
Cajun Spice. I especially like it in my omelets.