Recipes
Spice Cream
February 4th is National Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. If you're not making your ice cream into SPICE cream, you're definitely missing out. Here are some of our favorite (and unexpected!) flavor combos for you to try at home.With Vanilla: Madras Curry may surprise you as a pairing for ice cream (it surprised us too!) but once you taste it, it's impossible to deny. The bright pop of ginger and warm hint of cinnamon make it an ideal topping for vanilla. The two flavors combined will leave you with a slight hint of citrus on your tongue. Hojicha is a roasted green tea finely milled that brings a smooth, earthy, and nutty flavor to your bowl of vanilla. It's the perfect way to start the day! Cinnamon Toast Spice is such an obvious winner on vanilla ice cream, you're probably wondering why you hadn't thought of it yourself! The warm flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar pair well with your ice cream while evoking all the flavors of your favorite breakfast. With Chocolate: Kashmiri Garam Masala is deep and dark roasted with warm spices like cinnamon. Cloves make this blend intensely flavorful. Mouth wateringly aromatic, our Garam Masala brings out the best in chocolate. Alderwood Smoked Salt has an incredible amount of flavor in a single ingredient! Salty with a hint of campfire, this topping balances the richness in the chocolate. Urfa Biber is truly a unicorn of a chile. Naturally earthy with hints of tobacco, it will give you a mellow kick of heat that instantly gets cooled by the ice cream.
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Flour Tortillas
It's no secret that flour tortillas are champions of versatility! You can top them with anything, fill them with anything, and they work great for snacks or for meals. What's less well known, however, is that they're also incredibly easy to make! Really! And nothing beats a fresh, warm tortilla.When making tortillas at home, use the opportunity to be creative! By using different spices or flours, you can inject a little flair into your recipe, and make your tortillas truly unique! In this recipe, we use Saffron and Butterfly Pea Flower to give our tortillas unique and distinctive colors. You can substitute a portion of the all-purpose flour for other flours, too, for more flavor and texture variety.Recipes such as this one traditionally use lard, but we've found that vegetable oil makes a perfectly suitable substitution. It's easy to double or triple this recipe, and they'll keep in your refrigerator in an airtight container for a couple of weeks. Homemade tortillas are best when fresh, though, and we don't think you'll have any problem finding ways to use them!
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Juniper Duck Breast Pastrami
Make your own pastrami! Easy? Yes. Impressive? Yes. Delicious? YES!!!! This pastrami will bring Pacific Northwest flavors to your charcuterie board and guests clamoring for more. Juniper berries impart sweet, piney flavors with citrus top notes that play perfectly with European Coriander Seed. The smoky layers on the crust hint at a campfire flavored with Alderwood Smoked Salt and Upper Left Madrona Smoked Honey. This pastrami has turned many into duck lovers and will be the first to go on your smorgasbord. Use for charcuterie plates, sandwiches and pasta dishes. Tasty cold.
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Smoky Sunset
This bold cocktail dances in the grey area between sweet and savory. Starting from tequila as the base, we spiced this drink up with chipotle to complement the spirit's slightly earthy sweetness. Next, we added lime and grapefruit as an acidic counterpoint to the smoky heat. As a last touch, we finished the drink in style with a salty rim made of chipotle flake and alderwood smoked salt.All that's missing is a name. Perfect for a slow sip at dusk after a hot summer day, the cocktail tastes exactly like what we decided to call it: a smoky sunset.
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Khmeli Suneli Chicken Stroganoff
To be clear, the origins of this recipe lie in the Eastern European country of Georgia, not the southern American state or the revolutionary era in Great Britain. This small country lies nestled between Azerbaijan, Russia, Armenia, Turkey and the Black Sea. Accordingly, its cuisine has been influenced by both eastern and western cultures, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the distinctive spice blend, Khmeli Suneli. Traditionally used in meat, grain or bean dishes, we're using it here to help liven up a traditional Georgian dish of chicken and sour cream, which you may recognize as a kind of Russian Stroganoff. We're deepening the flavor by adding mushrooms and some additional Hungarian Paprika, as well as a finishing touch of roasted walnut oil. Served over egg noodles, mashed potatoes or even cauliflower mash, you'll find this uniquely flavored dish a welcome addition to your recipe collection.
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Hopi Beef Stew with Cornmeal Dumplings
When the weather starts to cool off, there's nothing quite so comforting as a hot bowl of chunky, homemade stew. This Southwestern style Hopi Beef Stew with Cornmeal Dumplings brings together some of the crops which originated in the Americas - squash, pumpkin, chile peppers and, most importantly, corn.Corn is considered sacred amongst the Pueblo and Navajo people, and plays an important role in their legends, ceremonies and daily lives. Most of us are used to only seeing yellow corn, but it also comes in a variety of colors, including red, blue and multi-colored. Here, we've combined yellow cornmeal along with other traditional ingredients and our own New Mexico Chili Powder, a mild, earthy blend of New Mexico chile, guajillo chile, paprika, cumin, garlic and onion. We've also included our own Alderwood smoked salt and, in the dumplings, some ground sage to bring a dash of Southwestern flavor.Recipe adapted from Marcia Keegan, "Pueblo and Navajo Cookery," Earth Books, 1977
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Shakshuka
Shakshuka is a Middle Eastern dish that is quick and easy to make, and can be served for any meal. Our favorite occasion is always brunch with friends, though, because it's such a crowd pleaser. This versatile recipe is traditionally seasoned with cumin and paprika, but you can use just about any spice blend that suits your fancy. For this one, I used our El Greco, with Mediterranean herbs and a hint of sumac. To top it off, I added chopped spinach and feta cheese to the sauce.
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Sassy Bacon Draped Meatloaf
I've finally nailed a simple and satisfying meatloaf recipe! A generous loaf draped in bacon is always a universal hit, but with classic comfort food, the brilliance is in the details. What set this loaf apart from all the rest was quick sauté on the onions before mixing them in. Their natural sweetness develops, complementing the Vietnamese cassia cinnamon in our bewitching Sassy Steak Spice. It's completely worth the extra step. Tip number two is to leave the loaf pan for banana bread - sculpt this masterpiece free-form in a shallow Pyrex baking dish to allow the bacon to properly crisp, moistening your loaf as it cooks, smoky juices mingling with the beef and spice...Delicious! Any leftovers make great sandwiches the next day, too!
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Ancho Chili Beef Empanadas
Who doesn't love food that you can hold in your hand? The beauty of empanadas is that the rich, buttery dough can be filled with almost anything - sweet or savory. Our Ancho Chili Powder is mild-medium in heat and adds magnificent depth to the beef and vegetable filling we chose. Ancho chiles have a wonderful, darkly sweet flavor, so we added a little Alderwood Smoked Salt for just a touch of smoky contrast. They can be served either hot or at room temperature - we like ours with salsa, sour cream and a Hibiscus Margarita.
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