Secret Ingredients

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

toaster leavins, sopped off the counter with a butter wad on the back of a spoon


and for special occasions, a roach dropping rim around my martini glass. oh yeah.

[Triple Zero]

Ok trying to add something to this thread, Piccalilly might be a good one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piccalilly Dunno if American-style is very different, but judging from the description I am using the British variety.

It's great to use as a relish kind of thing with the other sauces on your hamburger. And to make the best mustard-honey dressing EVAR: 1 part mustard, 1 part honey, 1 part piccalilly, 1 part mayo, 1 part olive oil, 0.5 part sambal and a squirt of lemon juice to taste. Use in pasta salads.

Another one, none of these are really "secret", but they are things most people do not use: A jar of freeze dried chives, garlic and/or combination of that including spices. It's German called "Salat Kraüter", salad herbs. A spoonful of this stuff improves a LOT of things, and the flavour of garlic and chives is really preserved well when freeze-dried.

On that note, my secret to improve cheap black olives into more expensive-tasting ones: chop and marinade them in a mixture of olive oil, fresh garlic, the freeze dried stuff above, sambal, salt (to taste) and pepper. Possibly other things if it happens, too.

[LMNO]

a roach dropping rim around my martini glass. oh yeah.

I think my imagination is running on hyperdrive, because that quote is major to me.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

Another one, none of these are really "secret", but they are things most people do not use: A jar of freeze dried chives, garlic and/or combination of that including spices. It's German called "Salat Kraüter", salad herbs. A spoonful of this stuff improves a LOT of things, and the flavour of garlic and chives is really preserved well when freeze-dried.

I do something kind of like this.  I make herbed butter when my herbs are fresh then freeze it for later use.  I also do a take off of sofrito which is so diverse in spanish and caribbean cultures you can do just about anything with it.  I take maybe 4 heads of garlic, two or three big onions, one or two medium heat pepper as large as I can find, cilantro and whir it all together in the food processor.  Then I freeze it in portions to use later.  I do this with other combinations as well. 

I have also stopped using bell peppers almost completely.  I will use poblanos instead.  They have that green flavor but with a kick. 

[LMNO]

Please to roast them on the grill/broiler first.  Yums.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

Please to roast them on the grill/broiler first.  Yums.

MMMM then stuff them with chorizo, rice, and cheese!!!!

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Many of the aforementioned stuff including smoked sea salt, saffron, roasted spices, etc.

However, I would like to give a mention to Peri-Peri (or peri peri sauce) and Pepadew for adding a good 'hot pepper' flavor without heavy heat for the more sensitive palette. I think Pepadew is technically a brand name for a specific variant of hot pepper, but I dunno its non brand name... name.

[Iason Ouabache]

I'm partial to grey salt. I'm going to have to find some smoked sea salt.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

I like that black lava salt for some reason

[BADGE OF HONOR]

Oh yeah,

Green Onions

They always add that last little bit of flavor.  Favorite application: whole wheat tortilla, gruyere, and green onions = the fanciest quesadilla you ever ate.

[Jenne]

"Secret ingredient" in this house means this pepper mixture that comes from Afghanistan (we have my husband's relatives bring it over from time to time when they are visiting or going back to visit).  Every house makes their own, it seems.  It's got dried, crushed mint, sumac, either ground green or red pepper, and sometimes cumin seeds.

We use this both to cook with and as a condiment.  My husband dubbed it "the secret ingredient" so that our 9 year old, who doesn't like spicy things, would tolerate a higher heat to the egg dishes he makes with his dad on the weekends.  My husband doesn't like anything WITHOUT red pepper (or green), so he gets our son to eat more of it by making him use it as a "secret ingredient" while cooking (this goes for any dish he makes with the boy, actually).  We are not above subterfuge around here, I guess.

As for things that I use that no one else does, it seems there's really nothing I can think of.  I try to keep the notion of "balance" in mind since I don't use recipes much.  I guesstimate how much to use of everything and go from there.  I'm lazy, so anything that's a shortcut for me, I use.

We have some fabulous Asian markets around here (Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Philippino), so I'll have to search out some of these things you are all talking about and try using them.  The Philippino market had lots of the coconut oils, jams and vinegars, so that will be a snap.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

ECH:  What woodchips do you normally use to smoke your salt? 

I use wood chips from the "I buy my smoked sea salt at the salt store" tree.

Actually made me giggle out loud.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I don't know if I have any secret ingredients. Sometimes I think things are all special and shit but then it turns out everyone uses them.

Crushed red peppers, the ones that come in HUGE bags for making kim-chee. They're milder than regular red chili flakes and have kind of a hot-paprika-ish flavor. These are super good in baked squash or bananas.

Dried, lightly toasted papaya seeds, mixed 50/50 with peppercorns in my pepper grinder. They're very mild and have a completely different flavor from pepper, and it's nice together.

I have a spice blend that consists of cardamom, coriander, ginger, cinnamon, white pepper, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and cayenne, which I use in tea, pie, cookies, whatever. I call it "tea spice". As far as I know I made it up.

Dried tomatoes. Not sun-dried tomatoes, homegrown thin-sliced dried tomatoes that are all crisp and crumbly. Crushed and added to soups and sauces, they add a sweet-tart intensity. Same with dried peaches, which are also fantastic in pasta sauce.

Olive paste, used in kind of the same way you would use anchovy paste or nam pla. I'll use miso paste or boullion paste or marmite instead sometimes, depending.

[Triple Zero]

okay, recently discovered secret ingredient:

sunflower seeds in blended soup.

cause they're a lot cheaper than pine nuts, mostly.

you know how you can easily make awesome soup from veggies like courgette (zuccini), broccoli, beets, pumpkin, or pretty much everything yeah?

it helps if you have a bit of onion+carrot+celery* ready addition to the main veggie, and of course garlic. cut it all up in tiny bits. you take a heavy soup pan, and a chunk of butter which you brown slowly, then you dump all the veggies into the pan, stir a bit cover everything with browned butter, and put the lid on and let simmer for a couple of ages. ok 15 minutes should do it. maybe you should do the carrot and onion first, cause they might take longer, anyone got an opinion on that? would it matter?

well, and then everything is nice and soft and browned and super tasty. and then you dump in a large cup of stock (I use cubes cause I'm out of stock), and with the blender-on-a-stick you blend everything into a smooth creamy soup. creamy? oh yes, you might want to add some cream. and a littlebit of black pepper.

well so far all this familiar, BUT

you can also brown and roast a bunch of sunflower seeds, they can be slightly browner than you'd like them on your salad, even. and then you throw them into the pan before you add the stock and blend them into the mix.

that is the secret ingredient. it gives wonderful flavoury nutty flavour, as well as thickening the soup a littlebit.

possibly if you make pumpkin soup, you're going to want to use pumpkin seeds, because I guess that would make sense.


* which is called mire-poix, when you use 2 parts onion to 1 part of the others. it's the basic veggies for any kind of soup or stock. and it really works, it makes things instantly more soupy tasting.

[AFK]

pain and despair