As some of you may have heard me say before, over the past year and a half I have been on a journey to eat healthier and cleaner. That has meant cooking a lot more food from scratch for myself and my family. It has been and continues to be a huge learning process for me. One that I am taking step-by-step.
One of the things that I am learning, is how to season food. Because, I used to cook from a lot of canned or packaged products, I didn’t have a huge need to add spices or seasonings to food. However, now that I am cooking more from scratch I am starting to use more and more spices and seasonings to add flavor to my cooking. Nescafé with Coffee-Mate, and their new approach to Better Together, has inspired me to come up with some of my own flavor combinations.
To learn how “spice things up” I have been trying take inspiration from different flavor pairings that I notice in recipes and foods and incorporate them into my cooking. If you are also just learning how to season, these simple parings are a great place to get started.
My 5 Favorite Flavor Combinations:
Tomato and Oregano – Oregano works great for homemade spaghetti sauces, pizza sauces, tomato soups, pastas with tomatoes in, or even sprinkled on a tomato/ cheese grilled sandwich.
Chili Powder and Cumin- I recently discovered a great recipe for homemade enchilada sauce that used a chili powder/ cumin pairing which served as my inspiration for using this combination anytime I want to spice foods up! I now love adding it to chili recipes, chicken tortilla soup, taco meat, fajitas, and of course enchilada sauce.
Potatoes and Garlic- Inspiration for this paring came when I was at a local fair and the amazing aroma of “garlic fries” filled the air! It is such a classic pairing that I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before. I used that inspiration in my own cooking by adding fresh garlic or garlic powder to homemade fries, baked potatoes and mashed potatoes. Just a few days ago, I added a few cloves of fresh minced garlic to my mashed potatoes, and let me tell you, it was pure heaven!
Lemon and Ginger- Last Christmas made some delicious gingerbread cookies with a lemon drizzle icing. The lemon and ginger complimented each other so well, that it is now one of my favorite combination to experiment with. I add a small pinch of lemon to lemonade, lemon-chicken, a hot lemon drink I make and even to the crust of lemon bars. I have learned that it is a very strong flavor, so just a pinch goes a long way!
Chocolate and Cinnamon- I found this amazing pairing quite by accident. A few years ago my son and I where baking a chocolate cake and when I wasn’t paying attention he added some cinnamon to the mix. After we baked it, and tried it, I discovered that it had this amazing rich chocolate flavor to it, that I hadn’t tasted the other times I had made that recipe. Ever since then I had just a tiny bit of cinnamon to all of my chocolate baking such as cakes and brownies. You can’t taste the cinnamon in the final product, but adding it always makes the chocolate flavor, taste a lot richer and darker. If you are a fan of dark chocolates, you will love it!
Giveaway Time:
Nescafé is also experimenting with new flavor combinations and wants to invite you to try them. They have paired the rich flavor is Nescafé Coffee with the creamy taste of Nestle Coffee-mate creamer in one easy to prepare bottle. As I am not a coffee drinker, I have not tried this new combination, but I can imagine that this classic pairing will have coffee drinkers falling in love. Nescafé with Coffee-mate comes in Original, French Vanilla and Hazelnut, giving you a chance to experiment with your own favorite flavors. To give Nescafé with Coffee-mate a try, be sure to visit their website, to download a $.75 off coupon. You can also enter my giveaway here to win a 2 week supply to try at home! The giveaway will end at 11:59pm on 10/27. To enter, fill out the form below.
Kam says
My favorite spice paring when making chili is chili powder, cumin, and dark baking chocolate plus ground cinnamon. The flavor is very much like “Cincinnati Chili”.
Ashley Alderink says
https://twitter.com/ashleyalderink/status/524375545900187648
Betty says
Love lemon and pepper seasoning though cinnamon creme or salted caramel would be my coffeemate faves
https://twitter.com/bettycd/status/524387830458769408
HS says
https://twitter.com/kraftmaking/status/524391452332556288
John says
https://twitter.com/John_Sig/status/524459061450776576
Cynthia L. Gray says
I like peanut butter and bananas in a sandwich, or peanut butter and fried, crisp bacon.
Michael Bradley says
Yup, chocolate and cinnamon for me too. I use both when I make my morning “Mocha Shake”. 🙂
Gina H. says
tweeted
https://twitter.com/GinaHull2/status/524823443452096512
Marian Boll says
Peanut butter and honey has always been a family favorite
Carolsue says
Tweet
https://twitter.com/MsCarolsueA/status/525577547858198529
JULIE MURPHY says
I tweeted https://twitter.com/juliemurphy20/status/526051572816809986
Krista M. says
Tweeted my favorite pairing here: https://twitter.com/CMandKW/status/526352494822424577
jenn giannetto says
i tweeted
@ohhhfires
https://twitter.com/ohhhfires/status/526410480685170688
Laurie Emerson says
https://twitter.com/laurallee56/status/526550307510431745
Nellie Curry says
https://twitter.com/NellieMC5/status/526570224443990016
Jennifer says
https://twitter.com/jsps2006/status/526623836188712960
susan smoaks says
https://twitter.com/fdp4life/status/526885129936183296
Olivia Hamilton says
https://twitter.com/OliviaDe84/status/526885340121153536
Sand says
Chocolate and chili is my favorite combination. I always add chile to my hot chocolate and when I make a pot of chile.
Michel says
Perhaps the first thing to do is to learn how to season your food properly – the salt & pepper should be added towards the end of the cooking, and you need to taste the food first, and then decide how much salt & pepper needs to be added for the correct seasoning – it will take a bit of experimentation for you to get it right for your taste – but only experience will guide you, rather than fixed quantitity – which,you will notice,are rarely specifies in recipes.
As to herbs and spices – the recipe will usually specify which herbs and spices are part of the flavour, and in this case the quanities are specified. You might like to adjust, for instance, the amounts of ginger, chilli and other strong spices to your taste – but this takes experience.
As a general rule,most European meat recipes use herbs rather than spices – there is the classic “Scarborough Fayre” quartet – Parsley,Sage,Rosemary and Thyme, all of which you should have in your store cupboard – and you should also look out for things like fennel or dill, both of which go well with fish, and Savory – both summer and winter,go well with beef,especially in stews.
Spices are more common in middle and far eastern dishes – but you should have at least chilli (ground or dried), cummin, coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg and turmeric.the recipes which use spices will always specify the amounts to use – but you will probably want to adjust the spices once you have a bit of experience.