Basically the title. I want to learn more about some ingredients or food items that you use frequently in your cooking and that aren’t super common where you live.
Example: Roasted sesame oil. Didn’t know there was such a thing until a year ago, and I never want to miss it again.
Dehydrated mushrooms.
They’re shelf stable, delicious, and healthy. They can be the focus of a meal like a stir-fry, or you can add them into anything savory (rehydrated or ground up) to give it more flavor depth— spaghetti sauce or chili are great examples. Throw some in ramen for an easy fancy-up.
They’re amazing.
This. I also pulverizer them into a powder to sprinkle into dishes.
My mother. Is on a very reduced salt diet. I introduced her to mushroom powder and she really likes the flavor it brings to everything.
Mushroom bouillon for sure. Toss it into any rice and get an amazing flavor.
Speaking of roasted sesame oil, ever since moving to Japan I have fallen in love with roasted sesame dressing and now I won’t eat salads with anything else.
For me I really like minced dried onion when cooking ground beef.
I also make my own cinnamon sugar, which gets used in a lot of stuff. 😋
Fresh mint, not ridiculously uncommon or anything but I never see people buying it and its rarely called for in recipes I encounter. I use it in a ton of soups, salads, and dressings. Also its like my favorite flavor ever.
I grow my own!
I hope you’re fencing that shit in, because every time I tried to grow mint, it took over the entire pot and the ones next to it.
I have an old wood box that overflows with mint.
Anything outside the box gets the weed wacker.
Works well enough.
Then again oregano made of easy in there and it’s like the Blood War in there now.
Sometimes the mint starts taking over, sometimes it’s the oregano.
Maybe not very uncommon but very underrated!
I don’t love mint as a food ingredient, but it’s good to have on-hand because you never know when you’re gonna need an emergency mojito.
A classic home-made/canned chili sauce. It goes into any hearty sauce that’s tomato based (some that aren’t), tacos, eggs, and a bunch more in probably forgetting.
Just adds a nice sweetness and complexity from the peppers etc.
Hoisin Sauce - Umami bomb!
So here’s what you do…
Marinate chicken breast in soy sauce a good couple hours or overnight.
Chop it into cubes, put them on skewers and grill until done.
Take an onion bun, paint one side with peanut sauce, the other with hoisin sauce. Stack up the chicken, top off with a slaw mixture, green and purple cabbage, shredded carrots.
Top all that off with sweet chili sauce. Put the top bun on and enjoy!
Bradj, an Algerian delicacy
Not really unusual, but I’ll put Marmite on anything. Also, no matter what it is you’re cooking, it’ll taste better with a little garam masala added.
Furikake.
Oh hey, I recently got some as a gift. Do you use it on just rice or what do you use it for?
Mostly rice, but it’s pretty versatile and there are lots of flavor variations so it could work for all sorts of dishes.
Yep! You can also make onigiris and dip them in it
I love sumac. The spice. I put it on everything. Amazing lemony taste with a beautiful red colour.
Also a big sumac fan. And zaatar, which contains lots.
Oh yes zaatar is so good
Gochujang and Miso. They are very versatile ingredients.
Oh, I love Gochujang. Goes very well with the sesame oil, too!
Brit.
HP Sauce. Marmite. Worcestershire Sauce.
Olive oil. On toast with soup. On crackers with cheese.
Lemon pepper. It’s surprising what a little sweet kick can do for food. My personal favorite is to put lemon pepper on cream cheese on a bagel.
Maggi seasoning:
The flavor is a little bit like soy sauce, but it has ‘umami’ taste too.
It’s pretty unique, but fucking delicious in things like banh mi sandwiches or stir fry.
A tiny little bit goes a long way - don’t overdo it!
Check out the similar Knorr Seasoning. I like the flavor much more than Maggi.
Will do!
