Look, most cooks know herbs and spices such as salt, black pepper, garlic, and ginger are important to flavoring, garnishing, and improving the taste of food in our kitchens. But what about some of the lesser known spices? How can I use them to improve my time in the kitchen and create more flavor masterpieces? Whether it’s a hearty breakfast, simple lunchtime meal, or a slow-cooking casserole you’ve made a thousand times before, there’s a taste lurking in your pantry that can be put into high rotation for your household.
I’ll take you through a range of amazing herbs and spices from around the world that you can apply to many different dishes.
I love basil. It’s probably my favorite herb because it can be used fresh, dried out, stomped on, and probably set on fire too, and yet it still remains effective. I grow basil, regularly buy fresh basil, have a jar of basil in the cupboard, and a herb blend mixing basil with oregano and rosemary. It doesn’t matter whether you’re making a salad, cooking a stir fry, or bringing your nonna’s Spaghetti Bolognese recipe to life, basil makes things taste better. My personal favorite is adding some roughly chopped basil to sea salt, black pepper, butter, and white wine when cooking a piece of fish on the barbeque.
Paprika is an alluring bright red spice created from ground peppers. I enjoy using it in soups and casseroles for flavor and color – with a traditional Hungarian style goulash being my favorite dish featuring this spice. Underrated for its versatility, paprika often combines with other flavors to help in marinades, sauces, and rubs, in everything from traditional Eastern European fare through to Mexican fast food. Some paprikas are hot and spicy, with predominant notes from the compound capsaicin found in fiery hot peppers such as cayenne or habaneros. Others are more sweet and nuanced, with the capsaicin’s heat balanced by more complex flavor.
Cardamom is a spice made from blending the seed pods of different ginger plants. Cardamom comes in two types – black and green – and is used as whole pods, seeds, or ground. Green cardamom is the most prevalent type, used for its tempering sweetness across Indian and Middle Eastern cuisine. It rocks when accompanying cinnamon flavor in many different types of desserts. Black cardamom is more savory oriented. it’s earthier, with a nice smoky dimension that contrasts hotter tasting curries or marinades and flourishes mixed in with Basmati or saffron rice.
Cumin is the dried seed of the herb Cuminum cyminum, a hand harvested member of the parsley family. It is available either freshly ground or as whole seeds, and works best in support of other spices. It’s a key component in both Chili powder and Curry powder, although I add it to a range of different dishes, including shepherd’s pie, Mexican spicy rice, and lemon pepper fish. Cumin has a slightly spicy flavor, but nowhere near the spice of chili or paprika, or the bite of black pepper, so helps add flavor for those with less enjoyment for heat and bite. Add it to your chili con carne once the meat is browned and drained of fat, you’ll see a great flavor base when it’s tasting time.
Chinese 5 spice seasoning is a mixture of star anise, cloves, Chinese cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns, and fennel seeds. It’s very close to the Indian spice mix garam masala. You can make it at home, but i prefer to buy a small shaker periodically. A staple of Chinese cuisine, it is most often used to flavor meat, fish, and poultry, and may be included in marinades and rubs. 5 spice is great by itself, but I enjoy utilizing it along with some hotter spice to create complementing flavors – especially for roasted Chinese dishes such as chicken or duck with green vegetables.
Chili powder blends are composed chiefly of chili pepper blended with other spices including salt, cumin, onion, garlic powder, and sometimes salt.
With the world reaching for hotter sauce and pepper varieties all the time, powder blends now reflect the type of pepper, including:
Carolina Reaper (the hottest on the Scoville Heat Unit)
Trinidad Scorpion
Ghost Pepper
Habanero
Jalapeno
Cayenne
It’s no longer as simple as the mild, medium, and hot that I grew up with. If I’m using a hotter chilli powder in my cooking, I tend to stick with Cayenne. Making mistakes with the unbelievably hot pepper powders can leave your food inedible at best, and leave you smelling colors (at worst). Save the excitement for dining out or buying in a bottle that’s been tried and tested.
Casual kitchen folks can understandably mix up allspice and Chinese 5 spice, however they are quite different. Allspice comes from the Pimento tree, and is a traditional versatile Afro Caribbean many different dishes across the world, from soups, casseroles and bakes through to jerky, or even gingerbread. It’s warm, nutty and pleasant on the tongue, working simply to lessen overly sweet or fiery flavors.
Rosemary is a member of the mint family Lamiaceae (so are oregano, thyme, basil, and lavender) and a great herb to use when cooking, roasting, or marinating different meats. It’s clean scent and flavorsome taste makes it a favorite herb, not just in its’ native Mediterranean, but also across the world. For me, whenever I have any kind of lamb, i’ll ensure rosemary is used in flavoring the meat alongside spices such as black pepper, cumin, mint, and lemon or lime.
The yellow spice turmeric is a ground root added to curries from India to South East Asia (if it’s a yellow curry, there’s turmeric in it). The spice is also a great additive to different blends of rice by offering a warm, earthy taste and an added pop of color. You may have also heard of ‘golden milk’, where turmeric is added to the milk of your choice as a health drink, or in a whole host of juice blends and teas.
Whether it’s for fire, color, taste or freshness, the herbs and spices above are great additions to your kitchen cupboard. Whether using them for an old favorite, or trying out a new taste sensation, keep them handy and don’t be afraid to apply them to different recipes.
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