Happiness is the spice of life is a truism. What is also true is that spice is a source of happiness. Especially when cooking and eating your meals. If you want to give someone an ongoing source of happiness, giving them (or yourself), a few great spice sets will never steer you wrong.
Without a well stocked spice collection, the home chef is like a painter with just one color. Sounds rather bland, doesn’t it?
Fortunately, we’ve taken a look at several, and here are some of our favorites: SpiceWalla, Nielsen-Massey, and Mola Foods.
SpiceWalla 18 Pack Kitchen Essentials Spice & Seasonings Pack
This kit has everything an experienced or novice home chef could want for most meals, hence the name “essential.” Eighteen different tins contain a variety of spices and seasonings, each packaged in a nice container that looks good on its own or in your spice rack.
The kit includes: Cumin Seed – Kashmiri Chilli Powder – Granulated Garlic -Granulated Onion – Dark Chilli Powder – Ground Yellow Mustard – Crushed Red Pepper – Smoked Paprika – Green Cardamom Powder – Cinnamon Powder – Cloves – Ground Turmeric – Coriander Seed – Mediterranean Oregano – Rosemary – Herbs de Provence – Fennel Seed – Ground Ginger.
What also makes it a great gift is that it will take quite a while for someone to get through all of these ingredients, and each time they use them they will think of you.
Find it Here
Nielsen Massey Extracts: Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract, Almond Extract, Peppermint Extract
Nielsen-Massey has long been the industry standard for high quality Pure Vanilla Extract. This is impressive, considering the competition from the artificial vanilla ‘flavoring’ brands, plus the amount of time and effort it takes to grow a real vanilla plant to fruit. Vanilla comes from an orchid vine, and the flowers produce seed pods from which the vanilla beans and essence are extracted. Anyone who has ever tried to grow orchids know that it is a labor and time intensive enterprise that gives us this fantastic taste.
Nielsen-Massey puts the same care into their other extracts, including one for Pure Almond and another for Pure Peppermint. Used together, you can imagine the feast of cookies and cakes that you can bring to the table!
Find them Here.
Mola Foods, Culture in a Bottle
Mola Foods has a range of spice blends, and each is inspired by a particular culture or region of the World. Founded by Jeannette Bryant, her spices are vegan friendly and vibrant.
One thing you will find once you start using any of these spice blends is that it doesn’t really matter what it was originally intended to elicit. It could say Indian, it could say Ethiopian, it could say Spicy or General. You are going to use it on EVERYTHING. Eggs, steak, chicken, vegetables, stews, fish… The list goes on, because it turns out that they are not just fresh, they are also extremely versatile. The basic ingredients of garlic power, onion powder, salt, perhaps some turmeric, etc., can be used as a general seasoning, and they are used in exactly that way.
Prepare for heavy duty usage and happiness.
Find it Here.
