…Other than salt and pepper
For me it’s cumin. It’s one of the few spices I buy in bulk and actually use up my supply.
In the winter it may lean towards cardamom thanks to copious amounts of chia.
Garlic and thyme. Where thyme is, there is garlic. If there is garlic, most of the thyme there is thyme.
Both herbs, not spices.
Cumin
I buy cumin seeds in bulk and grind them as needed.
I also use turmeric and ground mustard a lot too.
Cinnamon, easily, though cumin is a close-ish second. I put cinnamon in my porridge, in chilli and dahl, on beans, over cornflakes, and so much more.
Cinnamon goes great on roasted mushrooms. I really didn’t appreciate how savory cinnamon could be before.
I’m a slut for rosemary and garlic, with paprika being my go-to for more robustly flavored dishes. Herbes de Provence is a nice blend as well, if you like those, but it is on the lighter side. Good for chicken salad and whatnot
“Melange” - Spacing Guild Navigator, probably
Black pepper.
Or if we’re going off stuff that isn’t a condiment red pepper flakes which I put on tons of stuff or by volume garlic powder
Smoked paprika and Italian seasoning (hopefully doesn’t make me too basic lol)
Probably bay leaves. I make a lot of stock at home. I find you can’t really taste bay directly but you notice if it’s not there.
I also use a lot of cumin, coriander, and oregano. Various chili powders. Anchor powder is very nice and not too spicy.
Buying a nice mortar and pestle set was one of my best kitchen investments. Fresh ground spices are a game changer.
toasting seeds before grinding them is really nice.
I don’t know exactly what counts as spice ? I use a bit of shoyu (japanese name of fermented soy sauce) for broths and the like. Beer yeast for salads. A selection of chilis from Mada or Sénégal for some pleasant hotness. Curcuma grows everywhere around here so it’s also a staple. Same for ginger, and the wild variant “tsingiziou masera” -although I have been buying east african ginger recently because it’s cheaper.
Green pepper seeds from northern Mada, they’re not hot at all, just pleasantly crunchy and savoury.
When I get nostalgic of Provence I cook with garlic, olive oil and parsley (for seafood) or I use the wild basel that grows here during kashikazi (rainy season) : small leaves, strong taste, a little different from the mediterranean species.Very cool to hear your connections to all of them and how you source them.
I wish I could identify and use most plants like some of the elders (they’re not always elders of course) at least for culinary purposes. While they have conserved that empirical knowledge through traditional channels, others have studied on the mainland and now strive to reconnect it with modern, academic classification. An example https://journals.openedition.org/oceanindien/1770 This concerns medicinal uses, but there’s considerable overlap between food and medecine where plants are concerned.
Sounds like some bomb food. I want to eat with you for a while. To help with what they are asking, the meaning of spice below. It sounds like you are using a lot of fresh good healthy food, but little of it is a really a spice. Maybe the turmeric or ginger half counts despite I assume that you are using it fresh. Or likely those green pepper seed.
The rest as veggies, sauces, greens, roots and leaves.
“A spice is a dried, aromatic, or pungent plant product— such as a seed, fruit, root, bark, or rhizome— used to flavor or season food and other products. Examples include pepper, nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon.”
If you’re ever in the indian ocean, please drop me a line, we can share good meals. Thanks for providing a better definition. I didn’t realize a spice had to be dried, and plant material. Beer yeast doesn’t count as a spice then I guess, as it is strictly speaking… a fungus.
Rosemary salt, as I grow my own rosemary. Also got thyme and sage that I will probably add to it.
Salt? Salt.
Allow me to introduce you to this stuff:
100% pure flavor crystals. Start using this stuff instead of salt, it will change your life for the better.
(it’s pure MSG)
Smoked paprika, I have both spicy and sweet. Spicy goes so well with hash browns and baked potatoes
The always underestimated nutmeg.
Smoked paprika
The bestest! Love that stuff!
Black pepper. Fresh ground black pepper on everything. That and garlic are the only one I use in bulk
Lately I’ve been experimenting with variety so after that I have way too many different choices. My spice cupboard long since overflowed onto my counter and it’s definitely to the point where I need to plan certain cuisines so I use up spices while they’re still relatively fresh
I also cover everything in pepper, recently bought a little battery powered grinder and it’s fantastic
