Your Favorite Spice and Herb

[ruthcooks]

I'm interested in your favorite spice and herb, whether it ties into your formative years (as mine do), and what dishes you make that bring out those flavors best for you.

ONE spice and ONE herb, you gotta pick!

Here's mine:

Favorite Spice: Nutmeg

My grandmother's sister, my Great-Aunt Bertha, used to come visit her every summer for a few weeks. She would make several baked items while she was there, and one of my favorites was her Butter Cookies flavored with nutmeg. My mother told me that Aunt Bertha made and sold these cookies during the depression to make ends meet. Mom used to make this recipe for our "after school" cookie, where some moms make chocolate chip or oatmeal. Cinnamon is not one of my favorites, so I often substitute all nutmeg in recipes where the spices are combined. Peaches and nutmeg were made for each other.

Favorite Herb: Dill

One of my strongest memories is of running up and down the rows in my grandmother's garden. I would hold out my arms and brush against the dill volunteers which grew amongst the vegetables and flowers. I love the smell as much as the taste. Grandma didn't do a thing with her dill except let it dry and use it in pickles. My best uses are in green salads, herb mayonnaise and butters, tartar sauce, and combined with fresh young vegetables such as cucumbers, tiny summer squash and green beans. My favorite dill recipes are Russian Cheese Dumplings with Melted Burtter and Dill, a Coulibiac of Beef, Rice, Egg and Dill served with Hollandaise, and an over-the-top Macaroni Salad.

Interestingly, I have read cookbooks in which people have said that they lover all spices and herbs EXCEPT nutmet and dill!

[sugarsugar]

Favorite spice is cinnamon - I use it in savory and sweet preparations. I don't like a heavy hand with it, but do love the taste of it. Apple pie is my specialty, and it just isn't the same without some cinnamon!

My favorite herb is cilantro. I know a lot of people hate it, but I love it and look for ways to add it to whenever I can. I make a wicked tomato relish for curries that uses a load of cilantro - I add it to my curry, too, as well as asian turkey burgers, fish cakes, anything Mexican, salads, etc.

[SuzySushi]

Favorite spice is cinnamon - I use it in savory and sweet preparations.  I don't like a heavy hand with it, but do love the taste of it.  Apple pie is my specialty, and it just isn't the same without some cinnamon!

My favorite herb is cilantro.  I know a lot of people hate it, but I love it and look for ways to add it to whenever I can.  I make a wicked tomato relish for curries that uses a load of cilantro - I add it to my curry, too, as well as asian turkey burgers, fish cakes, anything Mexican, salads, etc.

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I'm with you! My favorite spice is cinnamon, too. Must be the memories of my grandma's apple pies while growing up! Like you, I add it to both sweet and savory recipes (a little bit is great with beef). I also sprinkle cinnamon and Splenda on plain yogurt to top my morning cereal. It's nice sprinkled into coffee while brewing, too.

And cilantro -- always fresh -- improves the taste of anything except dessert and coffee! Anyone who hates cilantro can send their excess to me!

[suzilightning]

only ONE herb?!!

spice is easy. ginger. though in my earlier years it was the pregound kind. my grandmother and later my mother used just a smidge in the soft molasses cookies they made and much more in the homemade gingersnaps. those gingersnaps with a mug of "coffee"(for a young kid it was more like 1/3 coffee, 1/3 milk and 1/3 sugar).... i still love that taste to this day. of course the store bought gingersnaps make a wonderful gravy for sauerbrauten though i have learned that some slices of fresh ginger in the marinade is wonderful.

herb...tarragon or thyme...tarragon or thyme...tarragon or thyme...

this is soooo much harder. i love both of the tastes. tarragon with chicken and lemon.

thyme with onions and mushrooms. tarragon in my beloved green goddess dressing.

thyme.... ok. tarragon wins.

[suzilightning]

And cilantro -- always fresh -- improves the taste of anything except dessert and coffee! Anyone who hates cilantro can send their excess to me! 

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from one suzi to another suzy...

give me your snail mail address.

[LoneSavant]

Hmm...favorite spice and herb are tough...

I guess I'll base this on those "moments of perfection"...you know, those moments when you take that one bite of something and you can do nothing but sit and stare into the distance...no moan or compliment would even give the bite grace.

My two are those that, when perfectly used, always score a 'moment of silence'

I'd have to say my spice would be Cardamom...

Improperly used it tastes like soap, but it's the one spice to me that in a perfect presentation it evokes such a warm and meditative flavor...like smoke and roses...

And in the same vein, my favorite herb would probably be lavender...basil is exquisite, verbena is lovely, but a perfect lavender ice cream makes my eyes cross...

[Ariel Schor]

Favourite spice has to be Nutmeg. It evokes memories of my mom's kitchen, from her perfect Bechamel, her delicious ricotta blintzes and fantastic apple crumble. Whole nutmeg is indispensable in my kitchen...I can even smell it now in the loaf of Banana bread in my oven.

Favourite Herb is by far the Chive. The most delicate variety of that onion flavour, It goes in practically everything I cook. I keep a couple plants in my windowsill all year long, and they brighten up my day every time I use them. They make me think of fresh, local tomato salads in the summer, and potato gnocchi in herb butter during winter.

[Lilija]

So, we went to this bodega, and bought roughly 3 lbs. of dried peppers, all kinds of unnamable and unpronouncable. I bought them based on appearence, mostly. I know that there was one 8 oz bag of dried chipotles among them. Took em home, dried them further in a slow oven (in batches, 3 lbs of dried peppers is a metric truckload.) then ground them in my coffee grinder.

I now have 3 lbs of this perfect paprika-smoky-spicy-essence of hot Mexico sun-pepper goodness reposing in my freezer, and it is THE spice for me. I use it in everything, from hot chocolate to tomato dishes, to macaroni and cheese. It gets sprinkled, rubbed, and dashed into most things, but so far, its single best application is mixed with a few things, and rubbed into a nice brined pork shoulder.

Does that count as a spice? I hope it does.

Herb, that's a toughie.

I'm going basil, here, maybe I'm a little basic. It's abundant in my garden, never boring, never "common" tasting, to me. It's always a suprise with it's sweet, verdant, sometimes sharp complexity. It melds with a million cuisines, styles, and flavors. It freshens up whatever it's in or on. Nothing says "midsummer" like a chiffonade of basil on a scandalously ripe tomato half, just kissed with grill marks, and warmed through. (I could go with a simple slice of tomato with basil, but I like it grilled better, for some reason)

I need to go plant my garden now, I miss it!

[rhinopias]

Cardamom is an easy one for me. Be it in cookies or a Bison burger I find it very haunting, and I really enjoy it mixed with corriander and cloves.

The herb is a little more difficult for me as I can change from year to year. The old stand by is cilantro, however right now I'm loving tarragon. I hosted a dinner party this weekend for 14 and served blanched asparagus with a fresh poached egg and a compound butter consisting of tarragon, shallots, and a little left over Meyer lemon zest. mmmmm....

[Lenski]

Nutmeg, always.

Chives (technically herb, but from the onion family).

Thyme, Rosemary, Tarragon and basil....depending on the season

[blue_dolphin]

I'm interested in your favorite spice and herb, whether it ties into your formative years (as mine do), and what dishes you make that bring out those flavors best for you.

My favorites change all the time! After looking through my cupboards, I'll pick two that evoke strong, early sensory memories, perhaps because they were used in holiday dishes.

Spice - I was tempted to choose pepper but I'll go with cloves. When I was little, I loved helping poke them into the Easter ham and the oranges and lemons we hung from the Christmas tree. It's another spice that goes into both sweet and savory dishes from spicy garbanzo beans to pumpkin smoothies.

Herb - Sage is my pick. A crucial ingredient in the Thanksgiving stuffing when I was a kid. Now, the roasted onions with sage and balsamic vinegar from Deborah Madison's Savory Way are a staple in my kitchen. I love the way the piney flavor of the fresh sage leaves complements the sweet-hot roasted onions.

[phatj]

Is garlic considered either a spice or an herb?

If not, I'd go with black pepper and basil.

[Fengyi]

Both my favourite spice and herb have nothing to do with my formative years -just my formative greed!

Spice: Cumin. I really learned to love this here in China with many drunken student nights spent huddling around a charcoal grill asking for extra cumin on my lamb kebab.

I've posted a cumin and lamb feast on my blog and it even makes *my* mouth water thinking about it.

Herb: Dill. Which is funny because I hate fennel and aniseed.... But the heaven of being on a Finland-Sweden ferry during the summer and eating pounds of dill-flecked crawfish and slabs of gravadlax is the best thing ever!

[Pierogi]

Absolutely impossible to answer with just one !

It varies by dish & by cuisine & by mood......

Spice........salt. Overriding, of course, but then there's black pepper and chilies and cumin and corriander and cinnamon and nutmeg and cardamon and really all the others. I can't imagine a *signature* dish without the appropriate spice. But if I really had to choose just one, it would be salt. Simply because it enhances everything else.

But herbs, no way just one. Basil is incomprable in pasta sauces and Thai food and with fresh tomatoes and on top of Pizza Margharita and so on. I can't imagine life without cilantro for salsas and Asian foods and Indian food and with cukes & cabbage as side dishes. But the same for dill with steamed new potatoes and with cukes in sour cream like the Poles love or mint with a raita or tossed with melon during the summer. Fresh thyme and oregano tossed with roasted new potatoes and EVOO, best ever. Fresh rosemary with a simple roast chicken or grilled lamb chops, to die for. Sage in a poultry stuffing, or a saltimbucco, the best. Even the humble parsley (flat-leaf) lends a lyrical note that takes many-a-dish from "yeah, its good" to "WOW, that was GREAT !" Even if you don't know the pure taste, you know there's *something* there making everything else taste better.

ETA---OMG, as I was literally crawling into bed, I thought......I CAN'T BELIEVE NO ONE HAS MENTIONED SAFFRON !!!! Seriously, imagine risotto or paella without saffron. No way. But use saffron in a picadillo, umm, not so much. But again, in dishes that need saffron, there is no substitute.

So, no. There is no one favorite. They mostly each have their place, and are irreplaceable in their uses. Thank goodness we don't have to choose ! But I could really do without tarragon.........'tho I love fennel, go figure.

Edited April 3, 2008 by Pierogi (log)

[Rehovot]

I suppose this is cheating, but I go through herbes de Provence more than anything else; I love it/them.

[LindsayAnn]

As someone asked earlier up-thread....is Garlic an herb or spice? that is my favorite....mmmm Wait - is it a vegi actually? Like an Onion....shit.....hmmm....

Spice - Cinnamon - like many have said. Love it in coffee drinks too - just a little goes a long way. (but I like a lot actually!)

Herb - hmm.....basil or oregano - shoot you said we HAVE to pick one didn't you? Basil then.....love italian food

[JimH]

Garlic, lots of it and freshly cracked black pepper. There's just something electric that happens when you bite into a piece of freshly cracked pepper. Garlic can be sweet or hot and the Italian side of me craves it.

[Beebs]

Ooh, this is fun!

Ok, I'm going with garlic as my spice. In my kitchen, running out of garlic is considered a national emergency - simply can't do without!

My favourite herb is rosemary. So versatile on chicken, meat, potatoes. I like to rub it between my hands with a bit of olive oil for a nice skin conditioner.

Mmmm... roast chicken with garlic AND rosemary!!

[MoGa]

Sweet smoked paprika (pimentón de la Vera)

Shiso/perilla/beefsteak plant leaves

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I can't consider the garlic as a herb or spice - I have a bunch in the fridge that look just like spring onions (gorgeous sliced and fried with egg and mushrooms) and a jar of garlic cloves pickling in a soy sauce mix, and hardly anyone is going to claim banana for their favourite herb either.

[nliedel]

Oh dear, this is a tough one. I think for the herb, Tarragon. The spice, garlic. I am having a hard time, because I don't think I could cook without my herbs and spices.

[hummingbirdkiss]

this was so hard!!! I think because it depends on the season and what I am enjoying the most

like now it is spring so parsley and chives are just perfect and right outside my door!

so for right now this second in time

breakfast eggs are Callstoga style with a sauce of sour cream minced fresh parsely and chives

last night I made a rice dish loaded with the same herbs

lunch today I am going to make Green Goddess dressing

for a a spice right now it is fresh cracked pepper because it goes so well with the above herbs...

May Mint will be my favorite herb! ...late may early June my sage and thyme are really in season ...rosemary starts....

then July ..well garlic to me is an herb and mine gets pulled at the end of July so that will be my favorite then!

for spices I go with New Mexican red any day as my top of the top can use it for savory or sweet and love love love it

but then there is ginger ..I use tons of fresh ginger ...nutmeg..cardamom ...black cardamom ...coriander, cumin or or or I feel like I hurt a spices feelings by having a favorite ..

I should not have started here ..I kept looking at this thread thinking "I can do this I can write one sentence say what I love now and then exit gracefully"

Ok Ok ...argh ....

parsley and chives ...I know it is two ...but they are both side by side in the garden ..green and calling to me now ...and I can not cut one with out the other right now it would not be fair! !

and pepper as the spice of now

Edited April 4, 2008 by hummingbirdkiss (log)

[handmc]

This is hard because my go to herbs and spices change with the season.

Saffron would be my spice (I assume its a spice because you buy it at the spice sook). My favorite use is a saffron cream sauce heavy with garlic, shallots, white wine and thyme that I serve over steamed clams.

Herb, thyme would have to be my favorite because of its versitility, but I use a ton of basil and flat leaf parsley as well.