Essential herbs and spices

redmel1621

Thanks for the replies everyone, I will definately add some of the reccomended ones to my shopping list for monday. I will look for some nice easy recipes aswell and see if there are any specific one I might need.

Do they last longer if kept in the cupboard rather than on display???

Mel x

spendthrift66

A quick note on this - I would recommend going to an Asian store for Idian type spices. Where I live there is a spar - but it is run by Indian people and they have a huge range of spices/curry ingredients/indian ice ceam - even saris! along with all the normal English goods and soooo much cheaper. That goes for the bags of rice, tins of chickpeas etc etc.

Egghi

I am Italian and it took me a while for finding and selecting my favourite spices here.

I ended buying a rosmary, a sage and a basil. I can't cook without them! I don't have problems in keeping them at home (they are quite small and they stay near my kitchen window), except for the basil (it dies reguralrly every 3/4 months!).

I also use parsley but I cannot find it fresh very often in the supermarkets. But I freeze it and it works perfectly on my fish dishes.

The dried spices I use are oregano (for pizza), black pepper, cinnamon, sage and nutmeg.

This is what I do, but I guess it depends a lot of what you use, what you cook, your habits,...

Swan_2

redmel1621 wrote: »

Do they last longer if kept in the cupboard rather than on display???

Mel x

dried herbs & spices will keep their flavour longer if you keep then in the dark, light's bad for them

also, don't buy Schwartz, Bart, or any of those other branded herbs & spices, unless you can avoid it or want a particular blended mix
they're wa-a-ay overpriced, even the supermarkets' own brands can work out very costly

as some other posters have suggested above, if you have them locally, an Asian grocer and/or Chinese supermarket will have herbs & spices at a fraction of the cost of those little jars ... which you can't get a standard measuring spoon into, go figure

I decant mine into little plastic tubs, value ones from supermarkets, even with the outlay for those, you'll save money
& I use a marker pen to write the date I fill the tub on it, as well as what's going into it ... pounds_and_pensive's suggestion above for marking the tops as well as the sides is a good one


have fun experimenting


EDIT ... sorry Zed42, wasn't paying attention & didn't notice you'd already mentioned the cupboard vs display thing

jillie1974

i got some of the packets of seasonings that ALDI rcenty had, got some little plastic containers from ASDA and filled them with the different seasonings as they were in bags and then cut out the seasining name and sellotaped it to the container..
have greek, italian and mexican so far
always have chilli hot and mild, garlic, black pepper, mixed herbs as well but i too need to get more

melie3

hi all,
i was making a salmon and broccoli pie yesterday, and didnt have anything to add to the milk i poached it in only black pepper. so im wondering what would be the best assortment to buy for different foods ie chicken, fish, meat etc. i was going to make a parsley sauce for the salmon pie, but as it smelt quite intensely fishy, wasnt sure if it would have complemented it.
thankyou melie xx

*niptuckfan*

my recommendations are - chives, parsley, chilli powder, cumin, ginger and oregano - i just chuck them in with whatever and always seems to turn out okay

pcg2001

I always have oregano around for salads.
I use cumin very often in vegetable soups and risottos.
I can't go without basil for pasta dishes with olive oil.
These tend to be used very fast in my kitchen.

Recently I got some chilli powder and find it is goos when the fish is "fishy".
I just made some salmon in the oven toped with a mixture of breadcrumbs, olive oil, chilli flakes, teryiaki marinade, lemon juice, parsley and it tasted really good.

as melie3 said I also usually stick whatever I have in the mixtures.

Pink.

Hi melie,

There's an older thread on essential herbs and spices that should help so I've added your thread to it to keep all the suggestions together.

This older thread might help too:

What do I do with my herbs??

Pink

sarahdh

Hi,

I've just bought a lovely magnetic spice rack with 12 jars, the first six I have filled as follows (what I already had in the cupboard):

Dried Parsley
Chicken seasoning
Tandoori seasoning
BBQ seasoning
7 spice
Sumaq

I need to fill the other six jars but with what? What are the most commonly used herbs and spices? I'm going to start cooking a lot more and would like to have most of the herbs and spices ready!