Working with Spices

Featured Pro: Tyler Florence
Category: Cooking
Time: 2:03


TYLER FLORENCE: Hi. I’m Tyler Florence here with a GMC Trade Secret.

You know, when it comes to making food taste delicious, spices should always be the first thing you go towards in your pantry.

Now, I’m going to break it up into two camps – whole and ground. Now, when it comes to whole spices, a couple of things that I always like to keep on hand are good cinnamon sticks, because they always taste great in everything, freshly ground; whole bay leaves, which are really nice flavor in most everything as far as, like, tomato sauces, anything savory; also some sweet stuff that’s really nice.

I’ve also got some whole allspice. I’ve got some fennel seeds, some cardamom, which are really nice. And these things really taste delicious. Now also what I like to do is take whole spices, put them into a saute pan and toast them to really release out the essential oils right there on the spot, and then grind them up in one of those great little coffee mills and they’re really delicious over top of steak.

Now, as far as buying already ground-up spices, a couple of things I always like to have on hand are curry powder – you know, curry powder tastes really delicious sort of sprinkled into rice pilaf, and it’s a really nice way to make a great dressing for chicken salad. Also I really love paprika. I think it’s a really underused spice that tastes delicious in authentic Spanish food, also tossed on a really down-home flour mix for really great fried chicken. Also I like a little cayenne sprinkled over everything. It’s really delicious; not enough to blow your head off, but enough warmth to really kind of make your mouth salivate and make it really taste delicious.

And also what I like to do is put together my own spice mixes. When it comes to making really good dry rub, great ground spices really go a long way, like ground coriander and cumin smashed up with some paprika. It tastes really nice. Also pepper corns are definitely something as far as a fresh, whole spice you should always have on hand. And keep your pepper mill full at all times. A little bit of chili flake goes great just about over everything.

Now, when it comes to using whole spices, they really taste great in savory things and also sweet stuff. Now, when the weather starts to get cool, I love a delicious cup of cider with really good apple cider, some cinnamon, some cloves, a little bit of cardamom. This tastes absolutely delicious.

I’m Tyler Florence, and that’s my tip on spices.