Essential herbs and spices

alec_eiffel

valk_scot wrote: »

Yes of course they did..days of the Raj and all these ex-pats coming home and all that. Think of kedgeree and muligatawny soup.

I agree, DH's great grandfather worked in India in the early 1900's and when he came back put curry powder on everything apparently - which lead to DH's grandmother eanjoying very plain food as soon as she left his care :rotfl:

In terms of bulking agents, I think it depends what spice blends you buy, some of them do have fillers and stuff but there are some great value ones (I like Seasoned Pioneers) and they're fabulous.

kezlou

I also own loads and i mean loads of spices, herbs etc. They do take a load of space but i use them everyday in my cooking. But if i didn't use them that often i would buy the already blended packs as its much better for space saving.

If you have an asian food store near you, you can buy balti spice blend for about 69p, these last about a year after opening, as you only need say a couple of tablespoons to make a curry with. so the packs themselves last ages.

hth

cooking-mama

Thanks guys....I think i was a bit over enthusiastic when i started stocking up on basics...im gonna keep the unopened jars/packets and as someone suggested make up my own mixes to taste from the opened packs....then once this lot is done,il just stick to ready made up mixes...I checked the packs,most are just a mixture of spices anyway....and its still got to be better than using packet sauce mixes or jars etc,

katholicos

I don't think there is anything anti-OS about buying spices individually or buying them pre made into easy to use powders or pastes. As long as you use what you have at relatively little expense, that's OS to my mind.

With the spices you already have, why not try using them up making different blends, such as the one shown here in varying strengths and blends.

JayJay14

I remember in the 60's my mother thought Vesta Beef curry was such a big treat. She was a proper old style cook but that was the nearest we got to anything exotic:rotfl:

katholicos

JayJay14 wrote: »

I remember in the 60's my mother thought Vesta Beef curry was such a big treat. She was a proper old style cook but that was the nearest we got to anything exotic:rotfl:

In the seventies we thought we were very poshe having vesta curry or tea...my mum used to always put 4 equidistant spoonsfull of peas around the outside edge of the plate with the rice and then the 'meat' (tried it recently for nostalgias sake - bleurgh!!!) and sauce was put in the middle of the plate. I actually recall arguing with my brother about how many lumps of 'meat' he had compared to me :rotfl:

valk_scot

When I met my OH he thought Vesta curry was what curry was all about. I on the other hand had spent part of my childhood living in Madras and our cook (we were right posh out there) couldn't make english style food so we ate a lot of local dishes with a lot of spices. Two polar opposites really when it came to Indian cooking, and of course the UK Indian restaurants of the 70's were something else again, lol. Fortunately though my OH quickly came round to my way of thinking rather than me going over to the Vesta side.

cooking-mama

Thanks guys,that looks like a great site Katholicos,thanks for the link....funny enough my OH,is a Vesta man too(I hadnt even heard of Vesta until I met him)....I do still "treat" him to one when i see them cheap in home bargains etc....tho he has to cook it himself(I use the term "cook" loosley)

zippychick

Hi Cooking Mama

I've merged this with a thread on essential herbs and spices, so you can see what others keep in their collection

thanks
Zip

Kilty_2

If you were to buy a spice rack that holds 16 jars - what herbs and spices would you deem to be essential to be in there? Obviously stuff that is used for a lot of different dishes being given priority, such as chilli powder or something like that.