What's an unusual ingredient, spice, or food item that you can't live without?
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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.
Tony Chachere's Creole
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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.
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Furikake.
Oh hey, I recently got some as a gift. Do you use it on just rice or what do you use it for?
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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.
Olive oil. On toast with soup. On crackers with cheese.
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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.
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.
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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.
A good rice cooker.
I use my zojirushi all the time and it makes perfect or near perfect rice every time.
For some easy umami, dried porcini mushrooms are great
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Oh hey, I recently got some as a gift. Do you use it on just rice or what do you use it for?
Yep! You can also make onigiris and dip them in it
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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.
Maybe not very uncommon but very underrated!
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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.
Bradj, an Algerian delicacy
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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.
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.
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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.
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!
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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.
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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.
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.
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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.
I make a veggie version which is just fresh lime juice, thinly sliced red onions, thinly sliced habaneros, and fresh cilantro. It can be used to make ceviche, which is a delicious cold-cooked fish dish (and Latino counterpart to sashimi), or just use it as a zesty side that can be added to just about anything non-sweet.
Simple to make, stores for weeks, low cal and super-healthy.
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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!
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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.
Capers are more useful than one might think.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
I have a deep, torrid addiction to Sriracha (‘rooster’) sauce.
It’s awesome.
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Tony Chachere's Creole
I’m surprised by how much I use this stuff, and the competitor Slap Ya Mama. I started buying a can for red beans and rice, but it’s just perfect for seasoning eggs, marinating chicken, etc.
