Fav Spices

Tomorrow I am going to attempt to make bese bele powder. Wish me luck.

The Moroccan one is nice, I think it's called Ras al Hanout.

something with ginger and garlic is amazing.

Usually I like some fresh ground black and red on things. Yesterday I bought a "peppercorn medley" grinder and put it on my salad. hmm, not feeling it. Thinking the pink and white corns aren't doing it for me. Which peppers are good for what?

My favorite spice is cardamom.

I use green peppercorns more than black, probably because I rarely use pepper as a condiment.

Szechuan peppercorns are a whole nother game, as different from peppercorns as chiles are. But they're not in your medley.

wonder if whole foods has pepper ice cream. . .

Baharat:

1/4 cup black peppercorns

1/4 cup allspice berries

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

I smelled some not-entirely dried black peppercorns still on the cob, or whatever that's called, this weekend, and that shit is PUNGENT!

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Za'atar:

1 cup sumac

2 cups roasted, ground sesame seeds

1/2 cup dried ground thyme

2 tablespoons dried leaf oregano

2 tablespoons dried leaf marjoram

2 tablespoons dried leaf savory

1 tablespoon salt, or to taste (optional)

Morrocan Spice RubM (great for roast chicken or skirt steak):

1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground chile powder
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds, crushed
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Five Spice

Cumin

Not even sure what my favorite spice is. I'm trying to think of what I use the most, and it's probably allspice, but it's winter after all.

4 whole nutmegs
10 rosebuds (dried)
12 cinnamon sticks
12 blades of mace
1 tsp aniseed
8 pieces of turmeric
2 small pieces orris root
2 dried cayenne peppers
1/2 tsp lavender
1 tbsp white peppercorns
2 pieces galingale
2 tbsp whole ginger root
6 cloves
24 allspice berries
20 white or green cardamom pods
4 wild (black) cardamom pods

Blend finely.

(recipes vary hugely; that's Paula Wolfert's)

Also, galingale? Never heard of it.

Galingale aka galangal looks like ginger and you can find it in Asian shops (xpost -- Asian food shops). Some ras el hanout recipes "include over one hundred ingredients, some quite unusual, such as ... belladonna and Spanish fly."

(I'm making pozole next week! Just ordered the dried hominy yesterday.)

http://i1.trekearth.com/photos/31328/52453780.epices2.jpg

http://www.fotorustic.com/albums/Gallery/Villages%20et%20vieille%20pierres/Vieux_Nice/n_epices.jpg

These are both from the Marché in Vieux Nice.

I get big jars of Maille mustard there for as cheap as anywhere.

But yeah, most of what I see there is pretty pricey. Amazon is probably a better bet for the brand-name tools like Oxo, these days.

Speaking of which, it's been said before, but Penzey's is excellent for spice shopping -- even the things you can find in your local store are generally cheaper (and better) from Penzey's, which offsets the shipping charge as long as you're spending at least $20-30 at a time.

Ha ha, Beth!! That and lemon pepper were my favorite spices as a kid.

funny to see the moroccan stuff on here, I got a bunch of cookbooks+tagine+spice mixes for Christmas. Seems kinda daunting though - I'm hesitant to attempt working in a cuisine I've had only maybe once or twice in my life (and only then in the context of "California Cuisine"). If I get something slightly wrong, how will I know?

Also:

Less traditional - Baraka

More traditional - Aziza

And while we're on the subject of Arab food, generally, this place has a Yemeni chef. We've taken to going here when we see shows at the GAMH. - Saha

I love them, too too much. Their jars are also the best. Also, their cocoa and doublefold vanilla (which has a bean in the bottle, for luck or something). And they always include a nice little shaker jar of some blend for free. btw, 4 ozs of bay leaves? It's a helluva lot.

I would use them more often if I had more room to stock things but yeah, that much bay leaves is a lot of bay leaves.

Just think of it as any other recipe. You don't know what the bulk of the recipes in a cookbook are supposed to taste like, either, you just have a frame of reference that makes you more confident.

I agree with Ally. Try and figure out what it 'should' taste like but don't let inexperience prevent you from trying.

My Morocan-Jewish friend (who incidentally makes a Seder to kick all the Askenazis' butts) makes great Maroccan food but apparently there are subtle give-aways that it's Jewish Maroccan food.

There's also this Iraqi guy named Ya-Ya who has a place on Van Ness between Union and, like, Vallejo or Green. It's excellent but it really sticks to your ribs.

Also, STAR ANISE.

Oh, another point in Memphis's favor. Nothing in the Carolinas or Georgia, crap.

I don't have anything against that in principle, apart from the fact that the traditional meats, goat, mutton, lamb, etc... cook differently than pork, but the other day Bobby Flay or one of the dicks on the Food Channel was making some middle eastern flavored sandwich or something but with pulled pork and I felt a little put off by the idea.

My gf was in Spain in November. We are a saffron-rich household right now.

I don't have anything against that in principle

Yeah, it was just an easy example. I don't care much about authenticity, but I do have authenticity-like attachments to pizza, having been raised up here: I have nothing against the herb-cream-sauced, gouda-covered, potato-topped pizzas they sell these days, but they'd be a poor model to emulate if you're going for "authentic pizza." Ditto the Japanese pizzas with the Hello Kitty mayo and corn. Maybe they're awesome, maybe they're not, but they're a distinctly different thing than red sauce and mozzarella.

this sounds horrifying. Reminds me of the recent "jambalaya-off" that Bobby Flay had with some NO locals.

Though they also have -- and I wasn't even going to use this as my example, because it's distractingly odd -- chili-cheese jambalaya.

Exactly what I think every time I see PASTA (usually ziti) on pizza.

My head agrees with you, M., but the slice of potato and roasted garlic pizza I had at Escape from New York was awfully good.

Pasta on pizza does sound completely stupid, though.

Actually the logical thing in America would be to throw on fries or onion rings, wouldn't it?

Shakey, their website is so rudimentary as to be uselss but here's the yelp review. They have excellent spices and if you like soda pop (I rarely touch the stuff), they have stuff from all over the country.

I pretty much never drink soda, but I do have a weakness for some of the stranger stuff - Dr. Brown's Celery Soda, for ex.

haha - this reminds me of this "101 Omelettes" place in Sedona that had a peanut butter+jelly+banana omelette on the menu.

Check under the "Speciality Spices" link. I buy sumac from them. But yeah, no grains of paradise.

Also I agree that potato on pizza is weird but it usually works, especially potato + garlic. But I am fully acclimated to west coast pizza now.

I'm all about the orgegano at the moment as my herbs are growing like crazy in this heat/humidity. I've been cutting huge swathes off and drying it, and it doesn't even get to last, I end up using it within a week.

Would any of you consider fresh dill to be spicy? Or have you heard of cases where people perceived it as such (in the same way that, for instance, some people perceive cilantro as tasting like soap or something).

I made a salad with fresh dill in it for my family the other night and my 7-year-old flipped out about it. He screamed and said the salad burned and started guzzling water. It's the only thing I could think of that was out of the ordinary for our salads, although I have cooked with small amounts of dill at times.

I perceive dill much more as a flavor thing than providing any sort of heat. I'm a little perplexed.

I don't know, I don't experience dill that way but I've had things that hurt me, that felt like pinpricks into my flesh, that don't bother other people. Like that fluoride rinse dentists used to give us? Burned the hell out of my tongue, mouth, gums, everything. They never understood why I struggled against swishing it around for 5 mins.

So...it's possible? Put it in something again and see if he notices?

I bought a lot of the Spice Ace spices and blends before they went out of business. It was an amazing store, SF is lesser without it

Their book of spice blend recipes has been an interesting continued connection. I have since bought maple salt and granulated maple sugar to replenish my supply of the Vermont Maple Savory blend from them that I loved

the recipe includes fenugreek, which I don't think I've used before

i use the dried leaves more than the seeds but fenugreek seems to be cool, interesting herbaceous flavor

Pepper is such a workhorse most people just take it for granted, making it about the most boring 'favorite' spice. So, in order to avoid sounding as boring as I am, I'll specify cumin. It is wonderfully aromatic and ghee loves it.

xp I saw that one of the Spice Ace blends calls for fenugreek leaves as opposed to seeds, I had not heard of that as a spice before.

Maple salt and granulated maple sugar are great and I will use them for other recipes in the future

agree cumin is an essential spice

minced or granulated chervil, chives, onions, garlic and ginger are great spices but they don't last that long so use them up

the dried fenugreek leaves are a secret weapon in palak paneer

want to experience that

I have loved using paprika lately, both sweet and smoked, also saffron soaked in hot water as an infusion in rice

fenugreek is magic. for a long time i didn't have the leaves and used the seeds in curry and it was fine. i found a recipe today in one of my books for a kidney bean stew with a lot of dried fenugreek, like a cup or something? i have a lot of favorite spices though.

can't believe I wasted my allspice joke on a non-spice related thread yesterday

saw the post above years ago about za'atar. it is an amazing versatile spice blend and easy to make, you just need to have some sumac, which is worth seeking out

dukkah is another really great spice blend, and the NYT has a good recipe for it

za'atar is wonderful

I've been making a regular dish of spiced fried potatoes using fennel seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric, paprika and cinnamon and it is positively life-enhancing, especially with a hangover

yes to fennel seeds and cumin seeds! both equally wonderful in hot dishes and salads

i got ajwain seeds the other day so i can put them in naan, love all those seeds

A teaspoon of fennel seeds in the dough gives a great boost to cheese scones, too.

are ajwain seeds the same as carroway seeds?

I really like vadouvan, it is a mixture of fried shallots and fried garlic, smoked serrano and New Mexico chiles, black and yellow mustard seeds, as well as small amounts of turmeric, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, coriander seeds, cardamom seeds and cumin seeds, ground

are ajwain seeds the same as carroway seeds?

no

Seven spice togarashi is the shit

Vadouvan is great, I’ve used it on root vegetables before roasting them a lot. I like frying eggs in Berbere butter.

togarashi and berbere are two of the spice ace blends I bought before they went out of business and haven't used yet. I have been going through recipes and am looking forward to trying them both

i am still working through a pretty large quantity of berbere i got from an ethiopian store near me and this is my favorite use for it, ignore the brand placement and weird duplication of ingredients, i linked to the print so you don't have to scroll through acres of recipe blog garbage https://www.daringgourmet.com/wprm_print/45604

I have a couple of 5-teir well stocked wall mounted spice racks with a load of goodies, but when it comes to blends I'm pretty boring (especially now in Rona era I order everything from supermarkets and don't visit the local Asian one anymore) and tend to stick with popular ones like hot tikka curry powder, garam masala, five spice and not forgetting paprika and onion chip seasoning for the truly sophisticated bon vivant! I love the aroma of fennel seeds or cumin seeds frying in hot butter with onions.. mmm.

I haven't found red lentils at the stores I've visited near me, only green and black lentils, but that looks like a really good recipe.

clarified butter - ghee or niter kibbeh - is something I've read about for years but have never actually experienced

oh yeah i forgot about that, you can use ghee or butter or oil in this. i made my own niter kibbeh but i ran out of it.

berbere is so good, maybe my favorite higher-heat spice blend. i rarely get to use it since my spouse won't do much spicy food. i used to use it as a hash brown seasoning...always thought that berbere potato chips were a winning idea for that lays potato chip contest where they let people propose flavor ideas.

I have a hard time resisting putting smokey paprika into everything. I also need to find more dishes that have toasted anchos and chipotle.

to revive the mayonnaise thread, smoky paprika is great in potato salad. Asafoetida is a really mysterious spice. I bought some and am not sure how to use it. It's kind of repulsive honestly, but from what I’ve read its pungency dissipates with cooking, blending in as an onion or leek flavor.

yeah, you just have to cook it in fat and it normalizes. i use it when i'm following indian recipes but it seems like it would not have much of a following if not for the folks in india who avoid onions and garlic.

i just bought that for a cabbage recipe, i had some a long time ago and i think i let someone borrow it and forgot to get it back. it really does stink! even just picking it up at the store i smelled it *in my lungs*

i went to h-mart and i saw fresh fenugreek so i got it. it's unexpectedly peppery.

Asoefetida is great imo. Always put a dash in my chana masala

After a year of quarantine cooking and baking, I have opinions!

As far as entrees go, cumin is my MVP -- it's central to both Mexican- and Mediterranean-style recipes.

For baking/sweets, I love cardamom. I don't use it much because I want to make it last, but its spicy coolness is kind of remarkable.

I just planted some dill and summer savory. I use the former all the time, not sure what I'll do with the savory.. Bulgarian stew?