Every year around this time, I take down all my spices from the cabinet and check their freshness. In my country they print a "consume by" date on food. I usually do not mind going past this date by a few months but, I religiously toss old spices and replenish my stock. I buy the smallest packs of everything except for dried mint. That is used a lot at my kitchen.
I have heard enough aflatoxin horror stories from my dad who was an agricultural engineer with a PhD that, I never risk it. I am happy to say that I only need to buy rosemary. I do not use it often enough. May be I should try to use more of it this year.
Here are what I use:
Dried mint leaves
Cumin
Red pepper flakes
Crushed red pepper
Cinnamon
Muscat
Cajun
Taco Mix
Thyme
Ginger
Black pepper
Oregano
Basil
Cloves
Dried and crushed garlic
Rosemary
This year I would like to try my hand in some Indian food so, I have been thinking of buying Garam Masala. I recently checked the ingredients and saw that I already have all of it except for coriander and cardamom. I will check the prices to decide whether to buy it as a mix or make my own mixture.
It is difficult and very expensive to buy Indian pastes and jarred sauces so, I must make things from scratch. Any ideas and easy but yummy recipes?
I don't use a bunch, but my common ones are black pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, onion powder, onion flakes, cayenne and paprika. I just buy the prepackaged taco mixes.
ReplyDeleteI use a Tunisian spice mixture called tabel a lot( my mother’s recipes) It’s a melange of coriander, caraway seeds, dried garlic, and cayenne pepper. So delicious! I use it for instance in ground meat with some dried mint to make the famous mergez, a North African sausage. For dried herbes, I have everything you mentioned plus oregano and herbes de Provence. I also have saffron from Iran and dried lime for Persian cuisine ( my husband is from Iran)
ReplyDeleteMy spice cabinet is heaving. Basically if it's not "local" and I can get it I stock up. Probably not a great idea because they do tend to wear off don't they. I guess clearing my spice cabinet would be (yet another) job I could do on a rainy day!
ReplyDeleteI did not know about aflatoxin! Yikes. I just thought spices/herbs lost their potency. This is good information - I now desperately need to clear out my spices and refresh them!
ReplyDelete