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and can enhance many stews too. Put in whole stalks and leaves for cooking and fish out before using the stock, or add chopped 5 minutes before the end of cooking, or sprinkle finely chopped fresh on dishes before serving - ideal on many mixed vegetable and tomato soups, mixed salads, omelettes and more.

12) This one is a bit of a wild card: it should be a dried herb, and one that goes best with what you cook most often. Some people would use a "mixed herb" mixture, but I think it's better to keep flavours singular and less samey. I personally would go for dried marjoram, as I cook quite a few Polish soups and it goes very well with many of those. Essentially, if you cook bacon and pork products without tomato sauce, marjoram is the one for you. Thyme is a good alternative, as it goes better than marjoram with chicken and lamb dishes, and can be used in soups as well. If you cook a Italian, keep dried basil, if Greek, oregano, and if French - tarragon. I advise against dried rosemary altogether, as it has a musty smell and fresh rosemary keeps for weeks in the fridge (or keep a branch in a small jug of water as a kitchen plant and it might even start growing!)

To add to my lucky dozen, there are some suggestions for those who have various ethnic cooking leanings.

A) For Indian, North African and Middle Eastern cooking, the extra essentials are coriander (buy seed and grind as needed - the grains are soft and will crush easily), cumin (buy ready ground if you have no grinder or good mortar), turmeric, nutmeg and green cardamom pods (whole). The one extra fresh essential is fresh ginger, which is NOT replaceable by dried ginger in most dishes and, for many meals, fresh coriander leaves (they don't keep well, so I tend to buy jars of coriander leaves in oil & lemon juice, but they are not as good).

B) For middle-European (German, Polish and Russian) cooking, add caraway seed (for all those cabbage and sauerkraut dishes!) and fresh dill.

C) For Italian dishes, add fresh basil - it's absolutely essential.

D) For Spanish food (paella!) you'll need saffron.

The above should start you off in a right direction, the rest is up to you, your family, your creativity, and the recipes you come across. Don't be afraid to play, experiment, add, take away and substitute - and most of all, have fun cooking!

Learn more about this author, Magda Healey.
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