What is it? Organic Garlic and Herb Seasoning from the Simply Better range at Dunnes Stores (€3/55g).
What’s good about it? The herbs, spices, garlic and onion in the mixture are all organic, along with Atlantic sea salt. It is a very convenient way to bring a lot of flavour to a dish quickly. It’s a coarse textured blend, with salt, black pepper, fennel seeds, chilli, thyme, rosemary, onion and garlic in the mix.
How do I use it? It’s very versatile, but particularly good with chicken, as a pre-cooking seasoning or rub. Joyce Hickey, who recommended it to me, calls it “fairy dust” and she uses it in a delicious chicken, tarragon and mushroom pasta sauce. It is also excellent sprinkled liberally on potatoes before roasting. If I find I have too many onions, I slice them, season liberally with this and some olive oil before airfrying or oven cooking, and store in the fridge (covered in more olive oil), ready to use in pasta sauces and as a sandwich filling.
Where can I buy it? It is on sale in 85 branches of Dunnes Stores nationwide and online at dunnesstoresgrocery.com.
‘Our daughter is almost 40 and moving out soon, but she has told her son that he can stay with us’
Irish Times readers pick Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These as the best Irish book of the 21st century
‘I grew up in an apartment in another country. I bought an apartment in Dublin and had to get out after a year’
Adolescence: Five truths about our teenage boys we need to address urgently
Anything else? This is part of a range of dried herbs, spices and seasoning blends. The harissa spice seasoning (a favourite of chef Neven Maguire’s), the spicy pepper and herb seasoning, and the dried oregano are particularly good. All are organic.
Send your Shelf Help product suggestions to marieclaire.digby@irishtimes.com