PrintWhat is your favorite spice, and in what dishes do you use it?
Tis the season for homemade, spice-filled foods. What are your favorite spices, and in what dishes do you use them?
I love cinnamon and add it to basically anything: hot cocoa, cereal, sticky buns, and my aunt's pumpkin pie. My mouth is watering just thinking about them!
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16 Comments:
Star anise. And usually in a Peranakan dark soy chicken dish, with kecap manis, ginger slices, garlic cloves, cinnamon, cloves and black peppercorns
turkiyaki at 10:44PM on 11/07/07
Black pepper. Pretty much everything. Boring, I know... Ginger and cinnamon are tied for second, and I use them in dishes both sweet and savory.
emily20008 at 10:51PM on 11/07/07
Black pepper and cinnamon...trying to play around with nutmeg as well. I need to get more daring with spices and not play it so safe!
radley24 at 10:56PM on 11/07/07
nutmeg, these days. i've been living on spinach from the greenmarket, so i've been using quite a bit lately for that -- and also for the apple cakes and tarts i've been indulging in, with all the heirloom apples you can buy there.
cybercita at 12:28AM on 11/08/07
Fresh nutmeg, just scraped. It's so aromatic. You have to be really careful because (like tarragon) nutmeg takes over a dish easily.
Good, fragrant chili powder. It doesn't give as much heat as it does a penetrating, savory aroma to food. If I need heat, I add cayenne.
What about herbs? I have about 10 herb plants right now, 6 of them are rosemary. It just says "winter" to me. Here in FL, you yearn for anything that says "winter."
therealchiffonade at 5:11AM on 11/08/07
I use alot of cinnamon or nutmeg for baking. Gotta have the cinnamon-sugar on toast, too!
JEP at 5:49AM on 11/08/07
A little OT but the Gingerbread Latte just returned to Starbucks. Overnight, my usual Starbuck's staff decorated and it looks like Christmas exploded...LOL.
chiff0nade at 8:57AM on 11/08/07
basil especially in the summer i make a red sauce that has almost nothing but fresh basil and roasted garlic. this time of year, i get hooked on chai with all the flavors of the season
huney_bumper at 10:03AM on 11/08/07
Yum... spices...
Ginger, cinnamon and -- like therealchiffonade -- fresh nutmeg and really good chili powder. The best chili powder I've ever had is the stuff they sell in the marketplace in Mazatlan, Mexico (my in-laws live there), it has such a complex flavor, perfect on jicama with a splash of lime juice... but I digress. Also love cardamom.
CookiePie at 10:56AM on 11/08/07
So very pedestrian, but Emily2008's right. Gotta have black pepper (and salt).
Outside of the usual suspects, my weapons of choice tend to favor basil and cayenne.
@ therealchiffonade, you can totally have my Iowa winters. You pay shipping. I'll throw in fall and my ten hojillion tons of leaves and acorns for free.
corycm at 11:02AM on 11/08/07
Omgosh... I use so many spices and herbs in EVERYTHING... I have several plants, including a whole hedge row of bay laurel. Also, about 20 jars of dry stuff that I actually use very regularly. Another 7-8 jars of stuff I use less often.
I'd say my fave for sweet is cinnamon. It's one of the best flavors there is!
For savory, my go-to herbs are thyme and bay. They have an affinity for nearly all things. Sage, basil and Hungarian paprika (hot and mild both) close on their heels.
I make my own chili powder and always have some on hand. Dried and ground dried New Mexico and arbol chiles, cumin, oregano and a bit of cocoa powder. I'm constantly asked for my chili recipe, so I give the blend as a gift sometimes.
What do you NOT use? Tarragon is not in my house (yes, it's needed for a proper Bearnaise, but I'm fine without). I use nutmeg only sparingly -- it definitely can overwhelm. Made the mistake of using it in my pumpkin pie a couple times... ew... even wipes out the cloves! I don't use white pepper or lemon grass, either.
LoCo at 12:04PM on 11/08/07
Practically anything but rosemary which is another one that can get rowdy at the least encouragement. A soft spot for saffron, which I once loathed. Black pepper is the same; I used to be a doubter, but a pepper grinder spoke gently to me and changed my mind.
lemons at 12:17PM on 11/08/07
In order of frequence probably salt, feshly ground pepper, ground ancho chile, cumin, adobo. and Mexican oregano. Oh! and red chili flake. Can you tell I'm influenced by living in the southwest?
Colorado Jim at 1:47PM on 11/08/07
cumin, cardamom, saffron, hot red pepper ("peperoncino", as they say in italy), good cinnamon, ginger in all its forms (fresh, ground, crystallized), black onion seeds (not really a spice, i suppose), tarragon (yes, i'm a fan!), basil. sage and thyme, sometimes, and very fresh black pepper, of course.
emmab at 4:21PM on 11/08/07
i love cinnamon and apple pie spice in cereals. But for main dish purposes I've really started to love red curry powder and hot madras yellow curry.
zekks at 9:48PM on 11/08/07
My all time favorite spice is pepper. Other than pepper, I do not use too many other spices. I am not a huge fan of nutmeg or cinnamon. However, I use lots herbs.
My favorite herbs are summer savory and tarragon - which I grow in abundance in the summer! My favorite way to use them is to mix them and put them on foccacia (I make a killer foccacia!). I put them in sauces, salads, you name it.
My favorite rock is salt!!!!
Michigander at 11:25PM on 11/08/07