Name your spices!

[Dina]

Since I have an all-herb garden, I have fresh herbs on hand all year round. That includes things like ginger, galangal, arrowroot, turmeric, cardamom, lemongrass, various chillies, salad burnet, anise hyssop, horseradish, as well as all the usuals (parsley, chives, mint, sage, rosemary, oregano, savory, you name it.) I even have stevia and liquorice and marshmallow, and assorted medicinal herbs. Most of the seeds I store for cooking I've grown and collected myself - fenugreek, cumin, fennel, dill, celery, mustard etc.

Can I pick on your garden a bit? I only have basil growing in mine.

 

[Constance]

Oh, my...I have so many, it would probably be easier to tell you what I don't have. I don't like tarragon or fennel seed.
I do have some star anise that I bought to stud in oranges along with cloves for a good smelling Christmas pomander, but I never got around to it.

I even have a container of dried shitake mushrooms, but I don't know what to do with them. I figure I'll make a homemade mushroom soup one of these days, and use them in that.

I pretty well use all my herbs and spices, but one I haven't tried yet is curry. I've always been a little leery of it, because it's unfamiliar to me. But yesterday, I was eating a can of Cambell's Chunk Chicken Vegetable soup for lunch, and noticed that curry was among the ingredients (I always read that stuff on the can), so I may give it a try with a chicken dish soon. Is there some particular brand that is best, or is Tone's OK?

By the way, if you run across Tone's garlic/herb seasoning, give it a try. It's great stuff. You can compare it to the flavor of Good Seasons Italian Dressing, at a fraction of the cost. We use it on all kinds of things...oven roasted potatoes, chicken, braised vegetables, garlic bread, pasta...etc.

 

[Dina]

http://www.recipelink.com/mf/0/46993 Here's a link with some recipes for those shitake mushrooms you have stored Constance. If you don't use them soon, send them over to me. I'd be glad to cook them in some gravy over some chicken fried steak.

 

[BigDog]

I don't have much for spices, but that's not by choice. Mrs. Big Dog does not like spicy food, nor seasoned food for that matter. The only spice she allows me to use sometimes on meat is a Special Spice from Von Hanson's Meats (a local meat market). Here's what's in it. Unknown the quantity of each.

Salt, Paprika, Sugar Balck Pepper, Ground Mustard, "Spices", Onion, Garlic, Ground Celery Seed, and less then 1% MSG.

Of the rest in the cupboard, I bet maybe about half should be chucked since it's been in there since who knows when.

I make a home made version of Emeril's Southwest Essence, so I have all of the ingredients for that. I also have a garlic mesquite spice too.

We have curry powder as DW makes a killer creamy curry chicken that I love.

I have a pork chop recipe that calls for ground mustard, worcestershire, S&P and brown sugar, so we got 'em too.

We have a poultry seasoning that I think we got back in '99. That's one of the ones that ought to be tossed! LOL!

 

[Harborwitch]

Pretty much open a Penzey's catalog and you've got it plus a whole lot of stuff. Fish sauce, black vinegar, light soy sauce, reg. soy sauce, rice wine, red wine, white wine, malt, champagne, raspberry, balsamic, fig balsamic, plain white, and cider vinegar. White sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, demera sugar, real cane sugar. Tellicherry, Malabar extra bold, four color, pink, green, white, schzewan peppercorns. Sea salt, kosher salt, smoked salt, and fleur de sel. At least 15 hot sauces. 6 or 7 different kinds of dried peppers, crushed California red and Pakistani red peppers, ground habaneros, pasillas, chipotles, and ancho chile powders. Plus most staples for Thai, Mexican, Indian, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, & a few others that escape me right now.

I don't think there's room to list everything.