Essential Spices/Seasonings/Flavors

Okay, so you don't need an entire cabinet to do some really very excellent cooking and baking.  I will outline what I think the most basic spice essentials are to make a wide variety of dishes and baked goods.  Each spice is linked to a descriptive page.

Most Essential:

• Garlic
• Let's face it: it's good in everything (and good for your heart)
• I like to buy it in bulbs so that I have more options of mincing, chopping, or using whole; however, the pre-minced jars of garlic do have some merit for their ease
• There is a remarkable variety of garlic so I encourage you to try different ones.  At some farmer's markets, you may find a stand that deals entirely in garlic so you can sample and learn different uses for the plant.
• Kosher Salt
• The coarse grind and strong flavor of Kosher salt means that you can use less of it than traditional varieties.  Additionally, the coarse grind is also good as a means to help break up herbs in things like pestos
• Coarse Grind Black Pepper
• Again, coarse grind means strong flavor.  Go big and get the large "restaurant grade" containers at a local restaurant supply store
• Italian Seasoning
• Contains a mixture of commonly used herbs in Italian cooking: basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary.
• Remarkable versatile in a wide variety of cooking.
• Cayenne Pepper
• Easy addition to simply add some heat to your dishes.
• Chili Powder
• contains cayenne, often, but sometimes other spices too.  Often lends a smoky flavor.
• This is a place where spending more may yield a better product, but the cheap stuff is okay too
• Cinnamon
• Pretty much essential to any dessert making, but also has uses in cooking.  For instance, a bit of cinnamon in chili or stew makes for a very interesting and delicious dish
• You can buy the ground cinnamon or have fun with grating the cinnamon sticks yourself.  I've found that by grinding my own (using a zester, actually), I got a very strong flavor
• Vanilla
• Again, essential for baking.
• Be sure to buy the "pure vanilla extract", not the imitation

Less Essential but very nice to have

• Cumin
• A big part of Spanish cooking and you'll find it in the southwest too.  A marvelous addition to soups
• Paprika
• To a lot of people, just a garnish, but paprika adds a subtle, earthy flavor to many dishes.  I love it in sweet corn, chard, and many vegetable soups
• All of the ingredients of your Italian Seasoning
• Having them all separately allows you more control over the final flavor of your dishes.  Also, allows you to make things with Greek flavoring (more oregano), or a traditional rosemary lamb dish, etc.
• A much cheaper alternative to saffron if you want to make yellow rice
• Bay Leaves
• A great flavor enhancer and addition to many soups and sauces
• Also a natural bug repellant
• Almond Extract
• A nice thing to have to flavor various pastries, frostings, etc.
• In fact, having several pure extracts (not imitation flavorings), like lemon and orange create a lot of versatility in your baking production.
• Curry
• Pretty self-explanatory for what to use this for
• Ginger
• This ingredient has many more uses than many people believe.
• A great addition to some soups (black bean, squash, etc.), curries, marinades, etc.
• Also versatile for digestion issues: add some to tea or just eat some plain pickled ginger and you'll feel great.
• And ginger cookies-->yum!
• I do like to get whole ginger for the same reason as buying whole garlic: I can grate it if I want or chop it or slice it for pickling.  If you're just going to want minced ginger, I'd recommend the kind that comes in a tube and is refrigerated.  It's often by the produce at the store.  The ginger in the jar has almost no flavor, so don't waste your money.

There's certainly many many more spices to be had, but these are the most very essential.

Caprese Pasta Sauce

Oh wow, the Droid really didn't do a good job capturing this one!
More yummy than it looks!

I'm calling this "Caprese Pasta Sauce" because it has all the flavors of a Caprese salad.  I love creamy pasta sauce, so I thought I'd give it a try.  Turned out pretty well and is very filling.  I froze some for winter.

You'll need (for about 6-8 servings):

• 1/2 stick butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoons flour (ish)
• 1lb fresh mozzarella
• 1/4-1/2 cup shredded Parmesan
• 2 cups (ish) half n half
• 1/2-1 cup vegetable juice (or tomato juice)
• 2 cups (ish) roasted veggies (eggplant, yellow squash, bell peppers)
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1-2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 bunch fresh basil
• Italian Seasoning & kosher salt to taste

The Steps:

• Roast veggies as directed in my "roasted summer veggies" post
• Chop veggies into small pieces.
• Cut butter & cheese into small, easy to melt pieces
• Melt butter in a non-stick pot & add enough flour to make a good rue
• Add cheese and about half of the half n half and vegetable juice
• Stir constantly on medium high heat until all cheese melts
• Add enough more vegetable juice and half n half until sauce reaches a smooth, easily pour-able consistency
• Add olive oil also to help with consistency
• Add the rest of the ingredients, chopping basil coarsely.  Season carefully so as not to overpower your delicious fresh basil.  
• Simmer long enough to incorporate, but avoid over cooking
• Serve over "shape" pasta, like shells.

This is a very yummy, pretty simple recipe.  It's very very rich, so you really don't need much sauce for one serving.  I also think this could be good with some grilled chicken.  

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Roasted Veggie Caprese Salads

These are the Caprese salads I made for wine night guests using the roasted veggies and candied tomatoes I made several days ago.  They are delicious appetizers that are a little bit fancy.  Goes well with a glass of Pinot Noir (in my non-trained opinion).

You'll need:

• roasted eggplant
• roasted yellow squash
• fresh mozzarella (the soft kind that comes in a ball)
• fresh basil
• candied tomatoes
• olive oil leftover from roasting veggies/tomatoes
• balsamic or red wine vinegar
• Italian seasoning
• kosher salt

The steps

• Assemble the salads in this order, from bottom up: roasted veggie, one or two leaves of basil, mozzarella, tomato.
• Using the leftover olive oil, add vinegar, Italian seasoning, and kosher salt until it tastes like a good salad dressing.  Go heavy on the vinegar.
• Drizzle this dressing over the top & serve

You can also assemble these salads over slices of fresh tomatoes and not use roasted veggies or candied tomatoes.  I still have roasted veggies, mozzarella, dressing, and basil left.  I plan to make a creamy pasta sauce using those leftovers.  More on that in a few days when I have more time to cook.

Sautéed Red Chard

Red chard, of the variety I used in this recipe.
Didn't take a photo of the final dish because we were hungry.

I got another bunch of chard in my share and was looking for a quick, easy side dish using them to go with a fish dinner.  This is a very easy recipe which will help to cut the bitterness that chard can sometimes have.  Went very well with the fish fillets I served it with.  

You'll need:

• One bunch of chard
• One red onion
• One large clove garlic, or a couple smaller ones
• about a teaspoon each Kosher salt and coarse ground pepper
• Paprika, Cumin, and Cayenne pepper to taste.  More Paprika & Cumin, go light on the Cayenne--this shouldn't be a spicy dish.
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Parmesan cheese (optional)

The Steps

• Wash and chop the chard.  You have a few choices here.  I simply cut the leaves coarsely using my kitchen shears.  If you want to use the stems, cut the leaves off the stem and cut them coarsely.  Chop the stems into smaller pieces, as they need to be smaller so that they can get tender
• Slice the onion into about 1 inch slices.  You may chop smaller if you'd like, but then you'll need to be careful in cooking not to brown them.
• Chop your garlic coarsely
• Heat oil in a pan then add chard, onions, and garlic.  Stir together.
• Add seasonings to your liking.
• At the very end, if you'd like, add some grated Parmesan.
• The final product should be tender but not browned onion and tender chard, which will appear a brighter green after cooking.

I just served this as a side dish, but I think it would be good over brown rice.

Roasted Summer Veggies

Several varieties of heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, bell pepper, yellow squash.  And that weird little greenish white thing to the left of the squash is actually a cucumber.  Who knew?  Didn't roast that.

I heard about making candied tomatoes in the oven while listening to "Splendid Table" this morning, so I decided to try it.  While at it, I thought I'd roast some veggies.  I plan to use these veggies as a base on which to place little Caprese salads for Thursday night wine night.  The tomatoes may contribute to those caprese salads or may just be a snack or will go well over pasta.

You'll need:

• Veggies!  
• For candied tomatoes, get really juicy tomatoes, not Romas.  Heirlooms, as always, are best, but you can find some really juicy hybrid varieties.  I'd say the smaller the better, as those tend to be juicier.
• For veggies, the best types for roasting are eggplant (and I prefer the light purple variety you see in my photo.  I've found the long, skinny, light purple eggplant are about 10 times as flavorful as the typical large round, dark purple ones), yellow squash, zucchini, peppers, red onions.
• a cup or so of olive oil.  You'll need enough to cover the veggies and sit beneath them in the pan while roasting
• a few pinches of kosher or sea salt
• Italian seasoning
• a couple tablespoons red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar

The steps:

• Preheat oven to 400degrees
• Wash and core your tomatoes, but don't seed.  Small ones may be chopped in half, slightly bigger ones in quarters, and so on.  You want to have about 1 inch segments.
• Wash and sliced your other veggies.  Since I wanted flat veggies for little caprese salads (also good for sandwiches), I cut them thin.  For the squash, I cut the ends off then made slices on the bias.  For the eggplant, I cut the stem off, sat it upright resting on the cut part, and sliced large, flat slices vertically.  Peppers were cut into strips, too small and they'll burn.
• Place all of your veggies into a deepish metal pan.  I used a large casserole.  Tomatoes should be placed skin side down and other veggies laid out flat.
• Coat with olive oil.
• take a few pinches of salt and sprinkle over the top
• The tomatoes need nothing more, but you should generously sprinkle the other veggies in Italian seasoning and vinegar.  (A shortcut to this is to coat the veggies in Italian dressing)
• Roast in the oven for 20 minutes.  Remove all veggies but tomatoes.
• Roast tomatoes for 10 more minutes at 400 degrees.
• Reduce heat to 350 and roast tomatoes for another 30 minutes.
• Reduce heat to 300 and roast for another 30 minutes.  If, after this go round, the tomatoes aren't starting to darken, reduce the heat again to 250 and roast for another 30 minutes.

Store veggies in containers on their own.  Store tomatoes in containers with the oil they roasted in.  Can be frozen.

When serving, use the veggies as you'd like.  For the tomatoes, drain off the oil then serve.  Keep the oil from this roasting, which will be a great addition to marinades, soups, and sauces.

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