Wellness by MaryAnn Your food is your medicine

The Pantry

Make your own blends

When you cook without vinegar and tomatoes, spice is doing most of the lifting. Store bought blends hide salt, sugar, anti caking agents, and sometimes things we avoid on purpose. Mixing your own takes ten minutes and puts you back in charge of the label.

Two habits worth building. Buy whole spice wherever you can and grind it yourself, and write the date on the jar. Ground spice is at its best for about three months, not three years. That single change will do more for your cooking than any new pan.

The workhorse

Everyday House Blend

Chicken, fish, roasted vegetables, beans, eggs. If a recipe on this site says house blend, this is it.

  • 3 tablespoons sweet paprika
  • 2 tablespoons granulated garlic
  • 1 tablespoon dried oregano
  • 1 tablespoon dried thyme
  • 2 teaspoons ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For fish

Green Sea Blend

Built for salmon, cod, and anything that comes out of water. Fennel and coriander stand in for the lemon you are not using.

  • 2 tablespoons coriander seed, toasted and ground
  • 1 tablespoon fennel seed, toasted and ground
  • 1 tablespoon dried dill
  • 2 teaspoons granulated onion
  • 1 teaspoon white pepper

For roasting

Golden Root Rub

Carrots, parsnips, squash, sweet potato. Turmeric gives it the color, cumin gives it the depth.

  • 2 tablespoons ground turmeric
  • 2 tablespoons ground cumin
  • 1 tablespoon granulated garlic
  • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground cardamom

For slow cooking

Braising Blend

Lamb, chicken thighs, a pot of beans on a cold day. Warm rather than hot.

  • 2 tablespoons sweet paprika
  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons granulated onion
  • 1 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground clove

For the sweet side

Warm Custard Spice

Baked custards, poached fruit, rice pudding, anything with milk and eggs and not much sugar. Grate the nutmeg fresh and you will taste the difference immediately.

  • 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger

The method, once, for all of them

  1. Toast the whole seeds. Dry pan, medium heat, keep them moving until you can smell them. Usually 60 to 90 seconds. Coriander, cumin, fennel, and cardamom all improve dramatically. Ground spices like turmeric and paprika do not get toasted, they burn.
  2. Cool completely. Grinding warm spice makes it clump.
  3. Grind. A dedicated electric grinder is easiest. A mortar and pestle works and gives you a coarser, more interesting texture.
  4. Mix and jar. Small glass jar, tight lid, out of direct light. Never above the stove, which is the warmest and worst spot in the kitchen.
  5. Date it. A piece of tape and a marker. Aim to finish a jar within three months.

What to buy

Spice quality varies more than almost any other ingredient category, and the difference between a good jar of paprika and a supermarket one is not subtle. We keep a running list of the brands and tools we buy for our own kitchen.

See what we use