Cooking with Spices

The best way to get the most from spices is to toast them first; they sort of blossom, and release the full essence of their flavor. If your recipe calls for whole spices, toast them first in a dry skillet, with no oil of any kind. Do this over medium-high heat for just a few minutes, until you smell the aroma of the spice itself. If you’re adding ground spices to a recipe which also calls for sautéing other ingredients in some type of oil (onions or garlic, for a very common example), add the spice right on top of those ingredients (the onions or whatever) and stir everything around so the spice gets sautéed in the oil too. No matter what sequence the recipe calls for, do this first.