Wilton's decorating sugar. It is the big, grainy sugar. I often add it to things like scones and muffins.

Liquid crab boil. Gives a lot of heat, but disperses better than red pepper flakes or crushed pepper.

Basil, or whatever is in season.

Cilantro has become a basic ingredient I like to keep on hand. I'd also have to say wine is another I'll use often.

I agree about the celery leaves! Earlier this summer I was able to get "baby" celery from my organic gardeners nearby. Each rib had lots of green leaves that I chopped up whenever I was using celery in the dish. The rest of the year I buy the leaf-iest celery stalks that I can find.

Perhaps vinegar is an ingredient that I use/add most often. Just two tablespoons of red wine vinegar add so much to my favorite clam chowder recipe. I like to use rice vinegar in salad dressings where a light touch is wanted. I can count about 8 different vinegars on hand right now and I'm not even at home to sort them all out.

Teresa

Garlic -- love it in just about anything!! Cheese come in a close second.

I'd love to have a source for untrimmed celery. The leaves have so much more flavor than the stalks. I've been reduced to being a celery leaf hoarder, cabbaging away those miserable few leaves from store bought celery into the freezer for really important things like stew!

Which reminds me... There is a 'leaf celery' plant that is grown just for the leaves. I've never grown it but will give it a try for next years' garden.

Signature ingredient? Cilantro here. Love the stuff. Fennel (seed) is a close runner-up. I've never eaten the bulb fennel. Guess I need to try growing some of that, too.

Even though I've tried to become comfortable with the other great world cuisines, I invariably come back to the Mediterannean, that's what I like and that's my comfort zone. I'll add a dash of italian style seasoning mix to almost all soups. I use a lot of tomatoes, feta cheese, peppers, balsamic vinegar, parmesean cheese, canelinni and garbanzo beans, etc. I love celery but sadly don't buy it much because it goes bad before I can use it up usually. My one nod to my eastern european roots is that cabbage is usually my signature salad focus, only because it keeps well and is inexpensive, and I like it, fortunately.

But anyway, when I cook from my head, it almost always comes out Italian, Greek, Spanish or Lebanese style, etc. The signatures for those are olive oil and olives, feta, yogurt, oregano, lemon juice, other fresh herbs and parsley, parmesean and of course, GARLIC! And the wine vinegars. Signature food include peppers, tomatoes (and to some extend cukes, squashes, celery, but those tend to go bad on me). And let's not forget the great starches of those cuisines--crusty bread, pasta, rice and bulghur.

My only nod to my Scottish roots is a love for tea and all things oatmeal!!

Dried leeks and dried dark green celery leaves both in powder form. I grow, dry and grind the powder. I use these in everything from salad dressins to sauces to soups to marinades to breading.

My other favorite ingredinets are balsamic vinegar, lemon zest and juice and cilantro...oh yes and basil and garlic too.

I'm another who has been loving Mediterranean foods since I moved to Spain.

Hard to keep my favourites to just three ingredients but there has to be olive oil and tomato in there as well as red bell peppers.

The indispensable three for me are garlic, flatleaf Italian parsley and fresh leaves of thyme, the ingredient I grow and use in so many things that don't call for it.

Oh yes, and I grow my own leaf celery, which must be used sparingly because it has a very strong flavour. Wonderful for soups and stews.

SharonCb

I have a lot of favourites, but I wouldn't say I have any "Signature" ingredients.

There are a quite a few things that I always have on hand. Fresh Garlic, celery, onions, Green onions, shallots, lemons, parsley and in the summer months other fresh herbs, such as basil, sage, chives, oregano and thyme from the garden.

I think the real secret to good cooking is to use the freshest products possible. Except for a few herbs, I use very little in the way of dried ingredients.

I always have celery on hand and use the leaves as well as the stalks. I never thought to grow celery leaves like Sharon. I'll definitely do that next year. Thanks Sharon.

Ann

I'm into the lemon thing....if something needs "something"...it's fresh lemon. I use it in chicken salad, on grilled lamb as the acid in a salad dressing....in tuna salad or egg salad, on green veggies etc.
Another thing I usd often here and there is dry sherry...it has a fairly identifiable flavor, so must be used with care...but it does well in creamed soups as a marinade, in certain vegetable dishes and stews.
Linda C

I'm growing celery this year - two varieties. One that is lime green and matured early and huge - the plants are two feet tall. The other is a dark green and a smaller plant, maturing later. That is good because I have 18 of each type. In addition to using the celery fresh, I'm freezing some for use in stocks. The flavor is intense and fabulous. My mother is drying some, both diced stalks and the leaves.

Wine, dry sherry, vermouth, brandy, marsala. Lemon juice. A bay leaf or two. Butter!

I'm another large user of garlic & lots of fresh herbs. And, like Linda, use a lot of lemon both zest & juice. Just a bit of any of these ingredients goes a long ways towards taking an ordinary dish to something great. I always include a lemon when roasting chicken or making stock. But, I wouldn't say they are "signature" ingredients. I can't think of any single ingredient that I'm particularily known for using frequently...well, maybe chocolate! :)

Ann,

"I think the real secret to good cooking is to use the freshest products possible. Except for a few herbs, I use very little in the way of dried ingredients."

I agree with you...fresh is good. But, you should try drying some of your home grown tomatoes. Drying concentrates that summer fresh flavor. IMO, tomato products are better made with dried tomatoes compared to canned products (assuming you start with excellent tomatoes). Also, try rolling one of your loaves of bread with a paste of minced olives, sauteed shallot & garlic, tomato powder, & EVOO. It's excellent. You can also leave the dried tomatoes in larger pieces for sauces, stews, etc. Tastes like you've used fresh garden tomatoes in January.

I'll soon be drying the first batch of "Black From Tula" tomatoes & I expect it to make fantastic salsa with that smoky flavor all winter.

/tricia

Stuff I may tend to use more often or in more quantity than my friends: wasabi, mirin, shallots, garlic, liquours (sweeter ones, like Grand Marnier and Amaretto), various nuts.

Tricia, I have dried my own tomatoes in the past. And I enjoy oven roasted tomatoes served on top of toasted baguette topped with warm goat cheese and roasted garlic. BUT, I don't like to cook sauces with dried tomatoes. I find the sugars way to concentrated in dried tomatoes and they impart a sweetness to sauces that I do not care for.

Ann

Another wonderful herb to grow is LOVAGE (levisticum officinale)....it has a hint of celery and smells like a ready to eat soup or stew. I grew it once but it didn't survive too long, although it's a perennial. It's hard to find cuttings here. It's wonderful! I will try it again from seed, planting in a different location.

Called Maggikraut in German, because it tastes a lot like Maggi soup and stew seasoning. It's quite irrestible!

SharonCb

Celery for sure, maybe onions, too.
In savory dishes, that is.

In baking, oatmeal (old fashioned, NOT quick cooking).

And cinnamon.

Try a pinch of cinnamon in Okra Gumbo or in the sauce for Chili Rellenos.
Not enough so that it tastes like cinnamon.
Just a small pinch will add that "over the top" flavor.
And no one will ever be able to guess what your secret ingredient is.

Rusty

Another cinnamon fan here (try just a tiny dash in spaghetti sauce, Rusty).

Garlic, celery, onion goes in most of my savory dishes.
Fresh rosemary is favorite!

Fresh sage with poulty. And lavender. I don't use it a lot, but it's delicious in baked goods, jelly and the stems are tossed on the BBQ coals for a very subtle flavor with chicken.

Fun read!

Deanna

Garlic and onions. And more garlic!

Rusty's post reminded me that I always use a good sized pinch of cayenne in my gingerbread & gingersnaps. It's not hot, just gives a zip otherwise lacking with just ginger.

/t

Sharon? Isn't lovage the "'leaf celery' plant" that ci_lantro is asking about?

Rob...No...lovage is a different plant to the leaf celery ci_lantro was looking for.
My photo above left is of the leaf celery which I believe ci_lantro would like to grow.
Its botanical name is apium graveolens var. secalinum. It's the "var.secalinum" part of the name that differentiates it from stalk celery, as apium graveolens is any kind of celery.

Lovage's botanical name is levisticum officinale and it's a member of the parsley family.
The leaves are elongated and more pointed than celery leaves and it will grow into quite a good sized bush.

Leaf celery has a very strong, pungent celery flavour, while lovage smells to me like a delicious stew with celery overtones.
(Hence it being sometimes called Maggikraut in German because it reminds some of Maggi sauce for seasoning stews.)

SharonCb

I have a huge lovage plant, I had it for years. I took Annie a big bouquet when I saw her this spring. I promised I would dig her a start.
I use it sparingly as it can over power other flavors but it is really a unique flavor and goes well in many dishes.

Like Johnliu I also use a lot of wasabi, as well as Chinese black vinegar, toasted sesame oil, achiote paste, wakame, and ginger (but not all together). I tend to use soy sauce more often than salt and cayenne or hot sauce more often than black pepper. A tiny bit of cayenne can be used to intensify the flavor of chocolate. I get celery leaves at the Farmers' Markets or in the organic section of the grocery store. On one of the morning news shows, they said that celery is the most important vegetable to buy organic, as it otherwise harbors more chemicals than any other vegetable. I would expect lettuce to be a close second, but I wash that pretty well.

Ingredients I grow include Meyer lemons, limes, and herbs. At my new house, I can grow dill very well, and it did not do well in Venice at all. I am also growing cilantro more successfully, but I'm having a bit of trouble with basil and tomatoes so far. Thyme and oregano are doing well in pots in my back yard, and I also have lemongrass, epazote, and ephedra, all of which are fairly small and probably will not reseed themselves, and I will not plant them again.

Lars

Although I don't use bacon very often, when I do use bacon, I make bacon do strange things. :-)

dcarch

I don't have signature ingredients, I don;t think. I agree with Ann T that fresh ingredients, as little processed as possible, makes the best dish, so maybe whatever is in season is my signature ingredient.

Elery, though, it would have to be cheese and cumin. I'm not convinced that every food substance possible needs to be covered with cheese, and I often times scrape it off. I've finally convinced him that it's bad for my waist line and my cholesterol, I think.

He still adds cumin to everything from potatoes to fish, though. He buys the BIG jars from Sam's Club!

Annie