Cuisines and seasoning mixes that combine well (and those that do not!)

Cafe Society
1

Making beans today, as I often do. I combined Mexican seasonings with Jamaican jerk seasoning, and it was terrific. Alternately, once before, I seasoned my beans with Indian seasonings (garam masala and others), and it was fine by itself, but burritos I made with it tasted off somehow (I guess my palate expected a Mexican taste).

Another example that worked – a lamb stew I made a while back combining Indian and Thai curry seasonings, Moroccan seasoning mix, and Vietnamese fish sauce, and it was amazing. It tasted so good I wish I had written down exactly what I did!

What other combos work very well, and what do not?

2

The standard seasoning I give ground beef whether it be for spaghetti or stroganoff, etc, is, Worcestershire sauce, , cajun seasoning, and salt.

Tacos is the only dish I can think of I don’t use that standard.

3

I work from home and my wife does not, so I do most of the cooking. I have a 15 yo son who is finicky with certain things, and left to his own devices, he would eat nothing but noodles and crap, and never a vegetable.

So I find myself making relatively simple stuff I can whip up on a weekday, that he will eat, that is semi-nutritious, like spaghetti sauce I make with canned crushed tomatoes, ground beef, and finely chopped up onions, garlic and bell peppers.

Since the above go-to recipe gets a little monotonous, and since the 15 yo does like spice (just not most veggies) I often mix it up with various spices. I made an Indian-style spaghetti sauce with coriander, cumin, turmeric, cardamom, oregano, and chili pepper powder. Turned out really good.

4

I used to cook round steak with spices in the crockpot full of tomatoes and vegetables - onions, peppers, carrots - when it was done, remove the meat and whizz the sauce and veg in a blender. So they got to eat the icky vegetables unknowingly.

5

Yep, I’ve tried most of the tricks over the years to get my kids to eat more veggies. My older one was a little better at eating his veggies but not much. My wife used to buy this mix to make “Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits” at home, which both my carb-loving kids would devour. So I’d grind up raw cauliflower into powder in a food processor, substitute a fair amount of the flour in the biscuits for the cauli powder, and they were none the wiser :laughing:

6

Just made a curry/stew (what’s the difference?) that mixed the following, plus various veggies and meat: Vietnamese fish sauce, Japanese curry brick, Jamaican jerk seasoning, and a Belizean hot sauce. It turned out fantastic!