as far as herbs and spices go, the ones in the front of my spice cabinet (meaning favorites for use) are cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, basil, oregano, ginger, cloves and cumin... I also love fines herbs for any potato dish, especially mashed potatoes
These are good choices
I think I'd tend to use ground (hopefully freshly) black pepper more myself, but maybe that's because I have it to hand more often.
pepper flakes and basil are my favorite spices (along with garlic) for fried or diced and then baked potatoes
Oh, I'd use the pepper and garlic, but haven't tried the basil for that *makes note to do so next time*. Basil is excellent though. They should find a way to genetically combine basil and tomato so you wouldn't find yourself out of the fresh stuff just when you were cooking something tomato-based
Oregano and thyme seem ok dried, but basil is SO much better fresh. I suppose there is pesto, but the fresh leaves are often more suitable.
I cook way too many stir frys and such so the ginger gets used for that
Ginger is EXCELLENT in stir fries
also one good way of making sure that fresh ginger root gets used up within a reasonable period!
cloves in hot chocolate and beef stew and randomly in other dishes because I adore them
They go PARTICULARLY well with red meat, especially if it's slow cooked, so I'd very much agree with this use. Beef above all perhaps, though I've had very good results with cloves and venison too (when I actually had any venison to cook, I don't imagine coming across/being able to afford any more for quite some time though). I've got the use of a monstrous granite mortar and pestle at the moment that weighs about as much as a large sledgehammer, cloves, or just about anything else, crumble to powder beneath its awesome bashing power, so I don't have to worry about picking bits out or using ready ground stuff (which is rarely as good as fresh).
Cloves are definitely one of my favourite herbs, one of the most underrated ones too really. I was actually chewing on a clove when I got the idea of starting this thread! Chewing on cloves and cinnamon is an odd habit I have sometimes - don't know if anyone else does this. The potent flavour they have, with all the essential oils, numbs your mouth and is almost drug-like in its intensity, particularly if they're fresh and good quality, still full of oil. Cloves are also an extremely good remedy for toothache as the oil actually acts as a local anaesthetic. You can get pure clove oil as a toothache remedy but it's difficult to apply to the right spot without overdoing it, chewing one is probably easier (might be how I developed the habit a few years ago actually).
Does anyone else ever do this? Or is it just strange me?
I also love dill for homemade vinegarettes and for several different fish dishes
Dill and fish is also excellent. Tarragon is good too, or the two in combination
I like red pepper flakes, basil, ginger, and cumin too. I also like using fresh dill and coriander/cilantro and lemon and lime juice.
I want to start using fresh mint more.
I always get confused with the US use of "cilantro" for coriander leaf, I keep looking it up in the hope it might be some strange and interesting new herb. Apparently I never learn!
Fresh mint with boiled new potatoes is good, I think.
Also with yogurt or yogurt and cucumber. You might be able to get away with adding some cilantro/coriander leaf too. Or, why not combine the lot, and have it with the potatoes?
