Essential herbs and spices

Trinny

Hi There

Julian Graves is a good place to get spices in big bags as is any oriental or indian supermarket/ specialist shop.

We have

Dried Chilli - various strengths - good for chilli, curry or spicy asian dishes
Nutmeg - grate into plain white sauce to make Bechemel, also good in fruit cakes
Coriander Seeds - good pounded in pestle/mortar if fresh plant not available - add to spicy asian cookery - stirfrys, fried rice etc
Ginger - fresh which keeps for ages - crucial ingredient in asian, chinese food - along with garlic
Cinnamon - if you like the taste - great in bread and butter pudding or sprinkled on hot choc, or used to make fruit cake
Paprika - good for flavour and mild heat
Cumin - seeds good authentic indian curry ingredient - grind as for coriander seeds
Star Anise - licquorice flavour - great for adding to boiled rice, cooking with pak choi etc - remove before eating (just like with bay)
Turmeric - classic indian curry spice
Lemongrass - best bought fresh or dried - classic thai flavour


HTH

Trin

mouseymousey99

Nipped into Aldi today and they have a big bag of Oregano for 76p.
They also have Parsley, Basil & Bay leaves (buy a plant they are really easy to look after and you get Bay leaves for life).

You can also mix your blends to any breadcrumbs if you are breading chicken etc.

Phoolgrrrl

Italian seasoning goes in lasagne spag bol etc and on roast chicken and in soup also use basil
paprika and chilli powder for enchiladas chilli etc
dill for with fish
cumin corriander tumeric and garam masala for when cooking curry/indian style dishes

also have lazy garlic and ginger and tub of curry paste.

I use plenty more than this but they are normally for specific dishes. I buy them from the chinese supermarket as a lot cheaper.

cooking-mama

Hi guys,im having a kitchen cupboard tidy up today,I cant believe the number of jars,tubs etc of herbs n spices i have accumulated,I have garam masala,turmeric,cardammon pods,cinnamon,ginger,mixed spice,oregano,coriander,paprika,etc etc etc,the list goes on....But I also have

Morrisons,jalfrezi powder mix,
Asda,bolognese powder mix for pasta,
Tesco tikka curry mix....and some others,
Is it any less OS,to use these spices etc ready mixed?.I know it would certainly be space saving for me(and time saving too).
Im seriously thinking of giving my home cooking friends a lot of my jars/tubs of individual items and keeping the ready mixed stuff..mainly due to storage problems.

alec_eiffel

I think it depends on how you look at it. I buy some spice blends because if I bought the individual spices I know some would go to waste, so why throw money away doing that just for some sense of "authenticity"? If it's saving time, money, still healthy and reducing waste then there's no reason to not use them instead imo.

rosieben

I rarely cook curries and I agree with alec, its wasteful to buy all the bits when I'd end up throwing most of them out, that's definitely not OS.

Bongedone

Did they have curries in the olden days?

valk_scot

I make a lot of curries with a lot of variation between the spices I use for each one...so for me, individual spices work well. Also I can tailor hotness etc...and I don't like cumin, so I can leave that out. But if I was only making the occasional pot of the same type of curry well, one jar of an appropriate blend would be more economical.

One suggestion would be to use any opened jars of single spices to make up three or four basic blends for things you like, rather than getting rid of them and buying new jars of blends. Any good cooking website should give you the proportions of various flavourings.

annakat99

Read the back of the packets - thry're mostly full of bulking agents! I picked up a pack of Chilli mix the other day as I was cooking at a friend's house and she doesn't have a spice rack... it was mostly dried tomato, dried onion, rusk... I think it said 10% spices or something daft like that - rip off for 99p!

If you choose your spice collection wisely it shouldn't take up much space. Mixed spices are also a god-send (e.g. garam masala / curry powders / cajun seasoning etc...) a little goes a long way, rather than throwing a whole sachet into one meal.

valk_scot

Bongedone wrote: »

Did they have curries in the olden days?

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.