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little used spices,herbs


phifly04

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Ground cloves. I have about 3 recipes that call for it, in about 1/4 tsp quantities (a little clove goes a LONG way), each of which I make about once a year.

Dill. Again, I need it for very few recipes in very small quantities, and so it sits, and sits, and sits.

Ground turmeric. I only really use it when I make homemade pickles, and since I'm not doing that anymore since it's now too expensive to mail them for holiday gifts, I don't know what else I'm going to do with it.

It's funny that this topic has come up now, since I've just been going through my spice cabinet seeing what's at the back. The funny thing is that what's at the back is rotating for the most part, because I AM using most of my spices and herbs pretty regularly. I was pretty surprised, since there's usually some mummified green flakes back there.

Marcia.

Don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he wanted...he lived happily ever after. -- Willy Wonka

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Cloves, turmeric, fennel, mace, fenugreek, cardamom, hot pepper . . . some of you have got to try some Indian recipes. Almost enough spices there. :laugh:

I would think caraway seeds could be used in some Indian dishes, too. Probably not a bad substitute for ajwain; what do you think, tryska?

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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I was organizing my spice cabinet just yesterday, as I have over 60 of them, and I use them all, especially for Indian and Thai cuisine.

Cardamom makes the best coffee cake in the world, as found in this little gem "The Moosewood Cookbook," going back, like, 30 years. I fold blueberries into the batter and this is the biggest hit at all pot-luck birthday and brunch parties.

Mace and fennel seed are used in many Indian recipes.

Whole cloves, bay leaves and thyme are used for stock.

Mustard seed (black and yelllow) are used in all Indian cooking and the powder is used for making sauce for slavering on everything.

Turmeric, cumin, corriander, hing and white/black/szechwan peppercorns are the nomal things I throw into the saute pan. I guess I like spicy food.

Please buy a coffee grinder for ten dollars and grind your spices as needed. I need some suggestions, however, on how to use Black Kokum.

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I was organizing my spice cabinet just yesterday, as I have over 60 of them, and I use them all, especially for Indian and Thai cuisine.

Cardamom makes the best coffee cake in the world, as found in this little gem "The Moosewood Cookbook," going back, like, 30 years.  I fold blueberries into the batter and this is the biggest hit at all pot-luck birthday and brunch parties.

Mace and fennel seed are used in many Indian recipes.

Whole cloves, bay leaves and thyme are used for stock.

Mustard seed (black and yelllow) are used in all Indian cooking and the powder is used for making sauce for slavering on everything.

Turmeric, cumin, corriander, hing and white/black/szechwan peppercorns are the nomal things I throw into the saute pan.  I guess I like spicy food.

Please buy a coffee grinder for ten dollars and grind your spices as needed.  I need some suggestions, however, on how to use Black Kokum.                             

This thread talks about kokum quite a bit.

Shelley: Would you like some pie?

Gordon: MASSIVE, MASSIVE QUANTITIES AND A GLASS OF WATER, SWEETHEART. MY SOCKS ARE ON FIRE.

Twin Peaks

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Dill is great for any egg dish, try some whisked into your eggs when making omellettes, or in a frittata.

Ground Cloves add a great spicey taste to chili. If you want to do a really great full-flavored slightly non sequitor chili, add some ground clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cocoa, and allspice to the normal chili spices.

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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My parents have cardamom, marjoram, and fennel that are all over 40 years old. They were wedding gifts. I'd say those don't get used very often at their house. I wonder if anyone on Ebay would?

Bode

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I have a whole bag of little packages of herbs and spices that I used a pinch of and never seemed to need them again. I put all of them in one giant ziplock, which may be a bad idea.....not sure about crossing flavors...Here is the list:

Annato seeds

pomagranate(sp?) seeds

Anise Hyssop

smoke chili (haven't made chili this year yet)

smoke cayenne

Star anise

five spice

dried mango powder

asfitida powder

And, that's not all that I can remember....

Ya-Roo Yang aka "Bond Girl"

The Adventures of Bond Girl

I don't ask for much, but whatever you do give me, make it of the highest quality.

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I have lots of spices that I use infrequently, but still want to keep around.

Every year I faithfully reorder all of my spices from Penzey's. While I keep things like whole nutmeg and saffron from year to year, everything else gets tossed once a year. I've been doing this for a few years, and it does indeed make a difference in the finished dish to cook with fresh spices. Now that I'm familiar with how much of a spice I use in a given year, I find that the smallest size of most things is enough to last the whole year. Since the smallest size of most of Penzey's spices cost $1.00-$2.00, I don't feel guilty about using them infrequently and tossing a mostly full container in the trash. I think my entire order, including shipping, was about $100. this year. I think that's a reasonable investment for a year's worth of cooking and baking.

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It's good to know what people are using fresh savory for as I have a plant in my garden which I don't even use!

Once I started cooking alot more across ethnic lines, I started needing many more dried herbs and spices. I think Indian is the most spice intensive of any type of food and I haven't even begun cooking it, although I have begun my collecting of the necessary ingredients...

Dill - again, like carraway, an eastern euro herb. A must in chicken soup, IMO. Also good in those sour cream cuke dishes. Good with lemon on fish.

Cardamon - I've been seeing lots more recipes using this, whether the pods soaked or the seeds crushed. I made almond lemon biscotti with cardamon and it was out of this world. It has a great smell.

Star Anise - I made Zuni Cafe's red pickled onions as xmas gifts and she uses star anise. Also, of course used in Asian cookery, along with 5 spice.

I'm kinda stumped on astefida powder - I bought this veggie cookbook once and she used it all over the place but I haven't noticed it called for anywhere else. Anyone have ideas on this? Is it an Indian spice?

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Turmeric and cardamon are also used frequently in Syrian and Yemenite cooking.

I can't seem to finish my five spice powder. I swear, someone sneaks into my kitchen late at night and re-fills the jar. :laugh:

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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Asafoetida, also called hing, is only used in Indian dishes, so far as I know. It's adds an indefinably authentic flavor, even though it smells funky.

On the fenugreek - yes, you need to grind it to a fluffy powder to use it. I second the suggestion to get a little coffee grinder and use it just for spices. It's easy to clean between spices by grinding up a little (raw) rice.

In the back of my spice drawers, the things I seldom use but don't want to part with: mahlab, mastic, ajwain, charnushka, juniper berries, and then stuff I do use more often, but still infrequently: star anise, black cardamom, sumac.

And while slightly off-topic, if you're wanting to add any new spices to your collection, my world has changed over the past couple of years since I've been regularly using: fennel pollen, grains of Paradise, Marash pepper, and Urfa pepper.

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Celery seed is a great example of this--I use it only in slaw. Is there anything else that's good with celery seed?

Potato salad...

Yes! fifi will agree, too (it's our secret ingredient...shhhh). :wink:

edited to add: I've honestly thought about taking all my jars of rarely used savory spices and herbs and dumping them all into a big jar and calling it a "Toliver's Suprise Rub" because I think it would be a surprise if the final combination would be considered useable/edible. :laugh:

Edited by Toliver (log)

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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Wow Abra, I just knew you would be using really obscure ones as your cooking is all over the world. :biggrin:

I've been trying to find juniper berries lately - guess I'll have to go to Market Spice or something. I'm seeing these in recipes lately.

Thanks for the info on Asafoetida and Fenugreek!

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Wow Abra, I just knew you would be using really obscure ones as your cooking is all over the world.  :biggrin:

I've been trying to find juniper berries lately - guess  I'll have to go to Market Spice or something. I'm seeing these in recipes lately.

Thanks for the info on Asafoetida and Fenugreek!

If all else fails try this:http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeysjuniperberries.html (Gawd, I love Google...) :wub:

Sorry, you'll have to copy & paste that link...

edited because the link wasn't linking...

Edited by judiu (log)

"Commit random acts of senseless kindness"

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If all else fails try this:http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeysjuniperberries.html (Gawd, I love Google...) :wub:

Thanks Judiu. I like the writeup they give for the spice - think I'll spend some time browsing here. But I gotta wonder, if you live in the right state, you can get all the juniper berries you want - are they one and the same?

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I go through phases, last year I was throwing ras-el-hanout into everything (With varying results) I found it at the back of my cupboard yesterday and threw it out.

Sadly it had lost all it's aroma.

Marjoram. Does anyone really use Marjoram?

I love animals.

They are delicious.

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I was told to use marjoram like a mild oregano. It's another one of those plants that are thriving in my garden but I rarely use. Even so, I hardly use oregano either. Now rosemary and sage are another story, luckily those grow really well too.

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I use Majoram, it is a lot like oregano, with an underlying piney sweetness, I love it.

Another one that mystifies me is white pepper. Lots of recipes call for it, but whenever I include it, the end result ends up tasting and smelling like wet monkey-ass. My bottle (which I think was gifted to me by my parents over two years ago, and had been in their posession for at least several years before that) is one of those little McCormick doohickeys, but does pepper have potential to go bad, as opposed to just lose potency? If this stuff were any more potent I would really be worried...

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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I use Majoram, it is a lot like oregano, with an underlying piney sweetness, I love it. 

Another one that mystifies me is white pepper.  Lots of recipes call for it, but whenever I include it, the end result ends up tasting and smelling like wet monkey-ass.  My bottle (which I think was gifted to me by my parents over two years ago, and had been in their posession for at least several years before that) is one of those little McCormick doohickeys, but does pepper have potential to go bad, as opposed to just lose potency?  If this stuff were any more potent I would really be worried...

Yes but...what do you put marjoram in!?

Too funny but you shouldn't be messing with monkeys. I thought white pepper was just so it wouldn't be seen in light cream soups.

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Cloves, turmeric, fennel, mace, fenugreek, cardamom, hot pepper . . . some of you have got to try some Indian recipes. Almost enough spices there.  :laugh:

I would think caraway seeds could be used in some Indian dishes, too. Probably not a bad substitute for ajwain; what do you think, tryska?

actually i don't know pan. i'm embarassed to say i have newver used ajwain for anything. i think it might be a north indian spice.

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Sequim - I use Majoram in Goulash, in chili, in anything Italian I would make where oregano would be appropriate but I am looking for a slight variation on flavor.

I absolutely love the flavor of black pepper, and white pepper just tastes nothing like it to me. If somehow I happened upon a bad batch of white pepper maybe I need to go pick another tin up, or perhaps some white peppercorns and grind my own to see if I can tell the difference...

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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I dont think that cardamom i bought for those afghani cookies will be used again anytime soon. i really dont even want to know WHAT i have in there.

you can use cardamom to make chai with.

another use for cardamom:

great kheer (indian rice pudding)

or gajar halwa (carrot halwa).

lots of indian sweets use cardamom

milagai

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My parents have cardamom, marjoram, and fennel that are all over 40 years old.  They were wedding gifts.  I'd say those don't get used very often at their house.  I wonder if anyone on Ebay would?

can you see jesus or the virgin mary in any of the containers?

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