What ingredients or dishes lived up to the hype for you?
I finally was able to find leeks at the grocery store for a reasonable price, since nearly every store near me has them in the “organic super food” section at $5 a stalk.
I turned it into some incredibly delicious Leek and Potato (And onion, I didn’t read the recipe closely) soup.
I think I cursed myself, because now I’m going to be wanting leeks even more
Salivating uncontrollably while reading the comments…
So, since it’s not mentioned yet, I 'll go with mushroom powders. Flavor and properties depend on which kinds of dried mushrooms are used, but they are just an incredible ingredient to add!
Asafoetida. When uncooked, the smell fits the hype of the various names from around the world: stinking gum, devil’s dirt, devil shit, satan’s shit, etc. Cooked, it tastes and smells like a very umami cross between garlic & leeks. Common in Indian cuisine, particularly vegetarian dishes.
There are so much delicious recipes with leeks : leek and potato soup, leek chowder, leek pie (with or without salmon), leek fondue (works great with smoked sausages), cold leeks and vinaigrette. It can also be used in couscous…
If you have the chance to get a whole plant, use the green part for the soup/chowder for a stronget vegetal flavor and the white part for other recipes.
Don’t know about “hype” but recently cabbage has become something i always have in the fridge. It stays fresh for very long (at least compared to lettuce), in almost every place where lettuce is normally used i prefer cabbage, cheap, nutritious and versatile, easy to throw in soups, stews or whatever you are cooking.
Dashi powder. It’s the missing ingredient that made my homecooked japanese dishes taste just not good enough.
Kimchi on my second time. I realized I just had bad kimchi when I tried it years ago. Now I can afford authentic and fresh kimchi, I put it on lots of stuff.
Black vinegar and dark soy sauce. I started fiddling around preparing more chinese/asian foods and these Sauces just have SUCH depth and strong flavor, I love it
Been experimenting with different kinds of fungus the past few months, mostly because they take less time to work their magic (like the one in tempeh), but I will definitely try fermenting my own soy sauce at some point. Everything else I tried to make myself so far has been way better than store bought products. If that’s true for soy sauce too…
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