I love cooking, and I cook every day for me and my wife (home office since 2008 helps there), and I love hearing about new things. I have the book “The Science of Cooking” which was fascinating.
I love cooking, and I cook every day for me and my wife (home office since 2008 helps there), and I love hearing about new things. I have the book “The Science of Cooking” which was fascinating.
Use herbs and spices. Use different spices. I get tired of recipes that use the same 4 flavors over and over, so I look for recipes that use something else. Under-used spices I love: cardamon, rue, sumac. Under-used spices that I can only fit in certain recipes: caraway, mace, fennel seeds.
Get spice mixes for pre-balanced flavors, like Herbs de Provence, Garam masala or Harrissa paste (you can make this yourself, but you should try a few versions to figure out what you’re shooting for).
Maybe these are al old hat to you, but here are some standard examples:
Interesting, never heard of rue. Translated it to German and never heard of Weinraute either :D I’ll have a look at the store the next time. And I’ll also give sumac a try.
Caraway is very commonly used in Germany, but my South African wife does not like it, so I very rarely use it.
I must say I’m a bit lazy with herbs, and I just buy “italian herb mix”.
For other spices, I always have chili (we love hot), pepper, salt, tumeric, all-spice, one hot curry madras mix, and nutmeg.
Depending on the recipe, I also have a lot of different dried chilies, and usually some standard fresh ones (jalapeños and habaneros)
One thing I’d like to recommend you: toasted ground coriander seeds. Toast them carefully over low heat until they release oil, grind in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle. Use for most meat dishes, but also goes into some salads. Widely used in South Africa, especially in their traditional Boerewors, which is why I stock it.