(no subject)

[coraa]

Silly quiz time (but this time not an LJ poll, because it doesn't lend itself to that):

I need to rebuild my herb and spice collection. I had a fairly good one, but moving a couple times messed that up -- plus, in the last move, the last thing I wanted was an extended determining of 'which spices did you buy and which did I?', so I left most of them; all but the ones I knew she hadn't bought because they still had a label from a little Indian grocery in LA. But it's time to rebuild the collection.

What herbs and spices do you consider to be essentials? What do you make sure you keep on hand -- fresh or dried, whole or ground?

(Right now, I have: whole mace, whole cardamom, whole cloves, wasabi powder [yes, I know it's not the real thing, but the real thing is $50/lb at Uwajimaya, outside my price range if I just want some kick in a stir fry], whole cumin seeds, black peppercorns, dried whole chiles, and fennel seeds; in my window is a miniature herb garden of basil, flat-leaf parsley, rosemary, tarragon, sage, and thyme, although the sage is sadly withering and I can't figure out why.)

Comments

[cwendy41.livejournal.com]

For fresh herbs, I've got rosemary, French tarragon, (Italian?) basil and (Greek?) oregano growing. I also have chocolate mint (which I got for novelty but haven't figured out what to do with it). I want to eventually get sage, thyme and lavender. I've been harvesting some of them and drying them. I've also taken some and frozen them. The tarragon smelled really nice after being frozen (tarragon loses flavor when dried).

For stuff that we bought powdered and/or dried, we've got rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, basil, salt, and peppers (pepper corn, ground pepper, some sort of red pepper). We've also got sea salt because it was required for a recipe. Garlic salt (because it was cheap) and lemon salt. We also have random seasonings for meat.

For baking desserts: cream tartar, vanilla extract, allspice, confectioner's sugar. On occasion we have whole vanilla bean. Cocoa powder. Not sure if I have nutmeg, but that seems essential to baking. That's all I can remember for now.