Recipes
Cuban Spiced Black Bean Soup
As the days are getting shorter, the air is getting colder, and here in Seattle the sun is making fewer and fewer public appearances. It can be easy to get lost in the gloomy grey blanket of winter in the Pacific Northwest (I know I'd rather be on a beach), but winter does bring the time for some of my favorite meals. Rich, hearty, long-simmering stews, soups, and braised meats can be the perfect accompaniment to a cozy night indoors by the fire or fortification to warm you from the inside when you have to brave the elements outdoors.To beat the winter blues, I like to crank up the rumba, turn on the sun lamp, and make a big pot of black bean soup with Cuban Spice, while day dreaming about a Havana vacation. Our Cuban Spice adds a bright flavor to hearty ingredients like black beans and ham, and brings them together with fresh ingredients . Although this recipe is very mild, it takes a few hot peppers quite well for those of us looking for a little extra zing.
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Melange Classique
This fanciful French blend combines nutmeg and pepper with a healthy harvest from the herb garden, to satisfy all your taste buds. Melange Classique is an all purpose seasoning for stews and roasts, pate, stuffing and bean dishes. Melange Classique will work well as a rub on any meat, particularly lamb, duck and pork.
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Chole
We loved Chetna Makan on "Great British Bake Off" and her first cookbook, The Cardamom Trail was full of many flavorful and stunningly photographed dishes. For Chai, Chaat & Chutney: a street food tour through India, she returned home to India and the street food that she grew up on. The book has four chapters that are organized by cities that make up the four corners of India - Chennai, Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta), Mumbai and Delhi. The fifth chapter? All masala and chutney recipes. Some recipes will look or sound familiar, others will not...but the photos and descriptions of the food will make you want to eat (or drink!) all of them. If you love Indian food or any form of street food, this is the cookbook for you! This recipe is a wonderful example how curries in the North of India use lots of fragrant and aromatic spices to make this mouth-watering vegetarian curry made with chickpeas.From the author: "One of the ultimate curries of the North, this chickpea curry is often paired with Bhatura, a deep-fried flatbread sold piping hot originally on the streets of Delhi but, now, all over the country. This combination should be on everyone’s must-try list when visiting India. You can keep it light by eating this curry with rice or chapatti, if preferred."
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Beef and Bean Taquitos with Avocado Sauce
'Tis the season for hosting parties. While sometimes that can be a bit stressful, the experts at Cook's Illustrated have come out with this book of 75 "only the best" appetizer recipes to reduce some of the stress. All-Time Best Appetizers Cookbook makes it easy to create a spread with everything from things that can be dipped, spread, or eaten by the handful to two-bite treats. These Beef and Bean Taquitos with Avocado Sauce are great for any get together...or for a "finger food" dinner. From the authors: "Why this recipe works - Making crunchy, golden taquitos is easy for restaurant cooks with access to a deep-fryer; our goal was to make them foolproof for home cooks, too. Adding mashed pinto beans to a seasoned ground beef filling and rolling the taquitos tightly helped the filling hold together. Sealing the edge with egg wash offered extra insurance, and frying in a mere cup of oil prevented the taquitos from unrolling as they cooked."
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Havanese Pork Loin (with White Rice)
Cuba is a vibrant, bold and colorful country that is full of life. Fascinated by its people and their endlessly delicious home-cooked cuisine, friends Dan Goldberg and Andrea Kuhn have been visiting this hypnotic country for the past five years. Dan, an award-winning photographer and Andrea, an acclaimed prop stylist and art director, along with renowned food writer Jody Eddy, bring the best of Cuban food to home kitchens. Trying any of these delicious dishes will make any meal a memorable one, especially if you make this Havanese Pork Loin.From the Author: "This recipe sounds complicated and luxurious but it's actually a breeze to prepare. It's one to keep in mind when you want to impress your guests without having to fret over a complicated recipe. Consider it the grown-up version of pork and beans, Cuban style, with a little Chinese influence thrown in for good measure. The secret is to keep spooning the marinade over the pork as it cooks, allowing it to absorb until it finally transforms into a sticky glaze--a "can't get enough of it" kind of finish."
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Lentil Loaf with Awesome Sauce
I've made this recipe for lentil loaf a million times. It is a go-to dish that keeps coming back around. Why? It's true the loaf is moist and flavorful, healthy, and satisfying. It's true that you can make it with just about any assortment of seasonal vegetables and spices. But the real reason is that the sauce is AWESOME. Seriously. For a family that loves to experiment with new dishes, the fact that we keep coming back to this recipe is a testament to its greatness.Credit goes to The Simple Veganista and her perfectly proportioned recipe for The Ultimate Vegetable Lentil Loaf. We've barely adapted it here. For our tastes, the secret is in the sauce, a simple blend of balsamic vinegar, ketchup and maple syrup, that pairs perfectly with all manner of flavors in the loaf. For this recipe I made it with New Mexico Chili Powder and our new Garlic Salt, but Sassy Steak Spice and Creole Seasoning also work well.
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Get Your Sausage-Making on with Chorizo Bomb!
World Spice's Chorizo Bomb spice blend has been a favorite of our restaurant clients for years, so it was no surprise that it started flying off the shelves as soon as we started offering it to our retail family. This versatile blend can be used to make a Mexican-style chorizo, or even a North African-style merguez sausage, as links or patties. It pulls double, triple, and quadruple duty as a great grill seasoning, taco and fajita spice, or in simple beans and rice. A little smoky from the Pasilla Oaxacas, sweet smoked paprika, and Chipotle flakes, a little herbaceous from the generous dose of oregano, thyme, and marjoram, and a bit sweet from the Hungarian paprika... well, you'll see. There's a reason we call it the "bomb!"So, how do you use it? We're testing additional recipes right now, but in the meantime, here are easy patty-making recipes for both Mexican chorizo and North African mergeuz sausage. P.S. If you decide to go all D.I.Y. homemade, here's a great article explaining how to grind your own meat for patties as well as case up your sausage links: how to make your own sausage.
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Harissa and Vegetable Couscous
This recipe has been a long time coming. Hardly anyone who comes in to the shop -- spice masters and novices alike -- can pass over the North African section without some long, lingering sniffs. The spices from that region are so exotic, in their perfect union of sweet-spicy-aromatic. "How do you use the Harissa?" is one of the most common questions following the exclamations of delight. And though my fellow merchants and I have written versions of this recipe on many a business card, envelope, and scratch paper, it's about time it took its place among our favorites here on the blog.The tender-crisp vegetables and fluffy couscous are a perfect vehicle for this sumptuous sauce, our version of the traditional Tunisian red pepper condiment that is so ubiquitous in Northern Africa. The cumin, coriander, and caraway add complexity and depth, with the guajillos lending just enough heat to be interesting without being overwhelming. You can also try the Harissa sauce on grilled meats or eggplant -- or even on halibut!
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Pumpkin Kale Enchiladas
Last October, the shop was bedecked with lovely heirloom pumpkins. Once they had seen the end of their lives as decorations, we roasted them and added them to everything -- and I mean everything! This recipe was conceived to please the vegetarian we had on staff at the time, as well as all of the ardent carnivores we always have around. It's the best of our pumpkin experimentation and was the first dish to disappear at our most recent tasting.Cooking with whole chile pods can be intimidating, if you've never done it, but it isn't difficult and the flavors are unparalleled. It should be mentioned that "chile" is not synonymous with heat. In this sauce, darkly sweet Anchos complement the roasted pumpkin, while Pasilla Negro and Mulato provide an earthy base to support the sharpness of the kale. Just a touch of smoke is added with the Pasilla Oaxaca, producing a rich and complex concoction that is remarkably mild. If you like your Latin fare a little spicier, you can customize the heat level with a pinch or two of Chipotle Flakes.
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