On the Topic of: Seasoning Part 2

     Herbs and Spices have become such a major factor in my life that I can't help but come back for a second rant of their importance.  If you remember On the Topic of: Seasoning Part 1 you'll recall I left a few tips for you, and if you followed them your life has probably been a lot tastier lately. But to take it further you'll need to understand a little bit more about what you're actually working with, what magic it is that is contained in the mysterious powders you've been sprinkling over your food (Spices that is, if you are dosing your food with some other magic powders you're on your own with that, ya junkie.)
     First it's important to understand the differences between what determines if something is an Herb or a Spice .It all boils down to three things, location, location, location. The location specifically of the volatile oils that give Herbs and Spices their flavor packed punch. If you pull a Jed Clampett on the leaves it's an Herb, if you strike oil anywhere else on the plant it's a spice.
     Now that we know what Herbs and Spices are, let's discuss what makes the oils they contain 'volatile'. Are they poisonous or reactive with the skin, practically never, though a few examples like Mustard, Mace, and the Capsaicin located in Hot Peppers like Jalapenos can get a little rowdy when exposed to your more delicate tissues. So if that's not it, do they beat their spouses after a few too many Jager-Bombs? No, that's a stupid question and you should feel bad for thinking it. They are considered volatile oils because they evaporate so quickly, a pre-ground spice starts to rapidly lose flavor at about six months old (most of which may have already been spent in a warehouse, on a truck, or sitting on a shelf at the store before you ever get ahold of it. Whole Spices however, have a much longer shelf life, between one and four years if properly stored.
     "Whole spices, " you might ask in disbelief, "How am I supposed to use those?"
     There are two simple methods, the first has a very minor expense in the form of reusable cloth spice bags available at most spice retailers, such as North Market Spices. Just throw the spice in the bags and drop them into any liquid you happen to have on the boil. Of course, that doesn't help much with a fry, bake, broil, or sautee situation. The second method is a bit more costly but more useful in general terms. Buy something to grind spices with, from the old fashioned mortar and pestle to a cheap coffee grinder that will run even the toughest seeds and barks to powder in a few quick pulses.
     Remember what I said about using new spices carefully at first, the same can be said of using familiar spices when you first start grinding your own since their potency will be dramatically higher. Flavors you never knew existed might just come oozing out, having long since dissipated in the factory processed elderly saw dust they call Spices at the local mega mart.
     So, where do you get all these whole spices from, if not the grocery store? Well, Spices Ltd. at The North Market has a pretty tremendous selection at great prices, and their owner Ben is sort of a Spice Guru, so that is a definite option. But if you're a bit far from the market, feeling lazy, or just a shut in you can always buy from a reputable online spice vendor such as My Spice Sage who will deliver right to your mailbox, with no shipping charges if you are spending at least $20. They even have deals where they send you bonus spices with every order, even pricey stuff like Saffron or Madagascar Vanilla Beans.
     So, yeah, there is some stuff you may not have known about spices, and a few tips that might make things a little less bland in the mouthal regions of your life.
   

Shawarma Seasoning

Chicken Shawarma with Hangry Girl Hummus, Tomatoes, and Fresh Spinach

     Shawarma is a fantastic blend of spices and the grilled meats prepared with it native to the middle east. Delicious on Chicken, Beef, Pork, Lamb, or Goat, it is a luscious and rich mixture with tremendous depth and vibrancy. Mix it to taste with and pan fried or grilled meat and slap that shit on a pita with everything, you'll be happy you did.

Here's What You'll Need:

1 Table spoon Cumin Seed *

1 Tablespoon Coriander Seed*

1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder

1 Tablespoon Ground Cardamom

1/2 Tablespoon Paprika

2 Teaspoons Sumac

2 Teaspoons Salt

1 Teaspoon Turmeric

1 Teaspoon Whole Black Peppercorns*

1/2 Teaspoon Whole Cloves*

3 Dried Piri Piri Peppers*

1 Cinnamon Stick 1 inch long *

Here's What You'll Do:

1. Take all of the ingredients marked with an asterisk and grind them finely in a coffee or spice grinder.

2. Combine your fresh ground Spices with your pre-ground Spices, mixing thoroughly.

3. Season the fuck out of everything you eat for the rest of your life. 

Trigger Fingers

Pictured with Our Black as Midnight BBQ Sauce

     So... remember in my Interview with Ben from North Market Spices how he was talking about their 'Gunslinger Rub,'? Well, I can't pass up good spice recommendations and I picked up a bag. And it was delicious, so, one evening in a mood for one of the comfort foods from my youth I decided to make up a batch of Chicken Tenders, and lo, the birth of something wonderful.

Here's What You'll Need:

1 Pound of Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast

4 Cups of Flour

1 1/2 Tablespoons of North Market Spices Gunslinger Rub

Here's What You'll Do:

1. Cut your chicken into thin strips lengthwise, about 1/8 of an inch thick.

2. Toss the Chicken Strips into a zip top storage bag with the Gunslinger Rub, make sure they are evenly coated, and squeeze the air out of the bag.

3. Refrigerate for at least an hour.

4. Put your Flour into a large shallow container, like an 8x8 cake pan, and a few at a time place the Chicken Strips in the pan, bury with flour and press down lightly to make sure the flour adheres.

5. Lay each strip in a single layer on a plate and allow to rest for at least 20 minutes at room temperature. This will give the flour time to form a little Gluten, which will help it hold together in the fryer, as well as giving the chicken time to get a little closer to room temperature. You don't want to hold raw meats between 40 degrees and 140 degrees (known professionally as 'The Danger Zone') because it gives bacteria time to breed, but a few minutes shouldn't hurt anything, and the closer your Tenders are to room temperature when they enter the fryer the less cool down you will experience from your oil, the faster and easier each piece will leave 'The Danger Zone' and the crispier the end product will become.

6. One at a time drop your Tenders into a deep fryer heated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 6-8 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit. (I know, this can be tricky to determine with fried foods, but that's why you sliced them so thin Chief. Also, get a digital probe thermometer, you can get one for like, $20 and it might save someones life.)

7. Using Tongs or a 'Fryer Spider' extract your Trigger Fingers and place them on either a wire cooling rack on a sheet pan, or a couple of paper towels on a plate for a minute to wick away excess grease.

8. Enjoy with our Black as Midnight BBQ Sauce as pictured above, or with Sour Cream, or maybe even ranch dressing (I personally hate the stuff and feel like it is for people who don't want to taste food, they just want to taste ranch. I will be disappointed in you if you go for the Ranch, but unless you're one of a very small number of people I'm probably not peeking through your window to watch you eat, so I'll likely never know.)

A Day at the Market: North Market Spices

     There nestled in the North-West corner of the North Market is probably the highest concentration of flavor in Downtown Columbus, a place where volatile essential oils rattle the seeds that bind them, where piles of gold(en Curry)  and Crystal(ized Ginger) abound, the very same wealth that lead (an admittedly bewildered) Christopher Columbus across the oceans to the shores of The New World, behold: North Market Spices!
     That's where I met Ben Walters, a man of above average height and jovial disposition, and the figurative Dragon to whom this treasure horde belongs. After a few quick greetings we retired to the upper deck of the Market where it was quiet enough to speak.

C-Bus D.- "So how long have you been in business, and was it always here at The North Market?"

B.W.- " 2 years, and yeah, this is our first and only store so far."

C-Bus D.-" Wow, I'd imagine the rent here is crazy, especially for a first business."

B.W.-" No, not really. The Market is actually built as a kind of small business incubator. They want to foster small local businesses, no big chains, they don't want anything like that here."

C-Bus D.-" So, when did you find food? I mean, when did it become more a part of your life than just sustenance?"

B.W.-" It kind of started early in high school with my hate for leftovers. I'd come home late from Hockey practice and not want to reheat something. But it really blossomed more, you know, when I was in college and I was the only person who knew how to cook. If you wanted a home cooked meal I was the guy to go to for it."

C-Bus D.-" So, what got you into spices specifically?"

B.W.- " I've always liked to add flair to my food, you travel via your palate to different areas of the world. But really what got me into the store was sort of a lack of access to decent spices. There are a few other stores in town, but the one I was mostly going to in college, I could never really get there when they were open 'cause I lived and worked in the down town area. It was really just impossible to get there when they were open. Then one day I was sitting here having lunch with my Father and something had closed in the market and I said 'God, I hope they put in a spice store!' And he said, 'Ben, that's a great idea.' So I filled out an application, went through the whole process and here I am."

C-Bus D.- "So you just sort of threw it together on a whim?"

B.W.-" Yeah, I'd never done any sort of business before and it's my life now."

C-Bus D.-" So, what's your process when you make your house blend spice mixes?"

B.W.-" Sometimes it's just me playing around with different flavor combinations. Sometimes it will be a customer who brings me a blend from somewhere else that they just can't get anymore and I'll either get very close or exactly reconstruct it for them. Sometimes restaurants will come to me and they want something blended specifically for them and I'll come up with a few bases and whichever one they like I'll refine. For example, yesterday I came up with a new blend for a new taco truck, well a food truck, called 'That Food Truck,' opening this Saturday(July 14th 2012). They wanted something custom for them and I threw together a few things till they found the one they liked. It ended up really good, they were really impressed, I was really happy with it, and it was really different from anything else I've come up with before."

(Short break in the interview while we nerded out talking about how amazing Columbus food culture is...)

 C-Bus D.- "Before I found North Market Spices I had to do most of my spice shopping online, which is nice when you already know what the spices are but it feels like a gamble buying things you're not familiar with, unlike here where you can see and smell the spices first. The rest of my spice shopping was split up between about 8 specialty ethnic grocers. And honestly, after shopping around so much I can say your prices are really reasonable."

B.W.-" That's kind of the point of being here. I don't want to feel like I'm gouging people. I want a high quality product at an accessible price, and like you mentioned about going so many places, I try to buy as much of that hard to find specialized stuff and centralize it because I know there is a demand for it. "

C-Bus D.- "So, while on vacation you're on a boat, and an errant wave washes you into the briny deep. Struggling to survive you latch onto a piece of floating debris and pass out. When you come to you're on the shore of a beautiful but entirely deserted island. It turns out that the 'debris' you latched onto happens to be a solar powered temporal stasis chamber containing a lifetime supply of one spice, what do you hope is inside?"

B.W.- (Obviously struggling) "Ooooooooh, always soo hard to answer....Oh man, my tastes always change so much.. If I HAVE to choose I'm going to have to go with our new 'Gunslinger Rub'. It's a really spicy Habenero rub. It's got a great flavor and a great heat, and its spicy enough I could probably use it to preserve some stuff. My favorite thing to do with that is just rub it on some chicken wings and grill them, so simple. And it's not a traditional Southern Style Rub, we left the Sugar out of that one. We sweetened it with Sweet Smoked Spanish Paprika and Sun Dried Tomato Powder, plus Habenero has that sort of fruity sweetness along with the heat. "

C-Bus D.-"What do you hope is not in the chamber?"

B.W.-" Hmm... What do I not use? Man, I guess, and it's not that I dislike Orange Zest, 'cause I do like it. But I guess it'd be Orange Zest, I enjoy it, but I think I could make it without it."

     And with a few minutes of discussion about spices, this column, The North Market, and Columbus food our interview wound down. (I ended up trying the Gunslinger Rub, it was pretty bitchin' but I wouldn't recommend it for people who can't handle heat.)

The North Market
Trigger Fingers Made with North Market Spices 'Gunslinger Rub'

Om Nom Nom Rings

     Onion rings, that delectable taste treat oh so many of us love to... treat like the weirdo cousin of the French Fried Potato. Oh sure, they're cool enough when they're hanging around, but much like Arnie from 'Hey Arnold!' you generally forget all about them five minutes after they leave. No more! Onion rings kick ass and you should be ashamed of yourself for hurting their feelings. After a long and tearful heart to heart I decided to help them step up their image and take their rightful place in the world of appetizers and side dishes as the bold and blazing star of the culinary world that they are, and should have always been. Really, they just needed a change of wardrobe, out with the soggy, droopy, old rags they usually wear and into a crisp spicy new get up that will make you go, 'Om nom nom, sweet thing, om nom nom...'

Here's What You'll  Need:

1 Large White Onion (cleaned and sliced into 1/4 inch rings, or thicker if you think you can handle all that flavor)
1 Cup Greek Yogurt
1 Cup Milk
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Cornmeal
1 Tablespoon Fresh Ground Peppercorn ( I used Peppercorn Melange)
2 Teaspoons Onion Powder
1/2 Tablespoon Chicken Base
1 1/2 Teaspoons Salt
1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
Oil for frying

Here's What You'll Do:

1. Combine all of your wet ingredients in a medium bowl.
2. Combine all of your dry ingredients in a separate medium bowl.
3. Place your Onion Slices into a zip seal bag with half of your Flour Mixture and shake vigorously.
4. Pour remaining flour back into its bowl.
5. Take your rings out of the bag and one or two at a time drop them in your liquid mixture making sure to coat them evenly.
6. Pull them from the liquid and, trying unsuccessfully not to drip all over your counter, place them back into your flour mixture.
7. Pull the flour over the rings and press down on them with your open palm gently but firmly. This helps ensure that the flour adheres properly. At this point you can repeat steps 5-7 as many times as you want, though we here at The Columbus Digest would recommend against doing more than double dipping.
8. Drop rings one at a time into a preheated electric deep fryer or a Dutch Oven filled with about 6 cups of Canola or other frying oil. (Mary and I have a regular, Wal-Mart purchased Fry Daddy Electric Fryer, it's pretty damn convenient, resealable to keep your oil fresh for a few uses, and we feel like it was worth the $25.)
9. After about a minute flip each ring, a minute after that pull them out and place them on a plate lined with paper towels to absorb the extra oil.
10. Quickly wipe off your counter, I wasn't messing with you in step '6.' you probably dripped shit everywhere and it'll be the Dickens to get up if you let it dry.
11. Eat the Hell out of those onion rings, maybe with some ketchup that a wandering Hobo accidentally dropped a Basil Leaf into the way we did, or maybe with our Black as Midnight BBQ Sauce, or Wasabenero Sauce.

On the Topic of: Seasoning Part 1

     I know that mixing your own seasonings can be a little intimidating, they make those premixed packets for a reason right? Nobody wants to mess up dinner, friends and family looking down dejectedly, refusing to make eye contact with you, and deep down inside you know that they've lost all respect for you and you might as well just forget about going to your sisters school play or your Aunts Anniversary party. You've become a black sheep, a leper to your family, the one they keep locked in the cellar so the neighbors don't see you. But never fear, with a little practice and a little forethought you can step up in that crux moment when the fork is twixt plate and mouth and hold your head up high.
     The trick with seasonings, well, two tricks really, are:
1.      To know what the spices taste like individually. It's a wonderful thing to hear people talk about how fantastic Rosemary Chicken is, but it's entirely another thing to make a batch of it up and realize that Rosemary just happens to be one of those flavors that turns your stomach and you've ruined your dinner. With any new spice it's important to taste test it first, as much as sticks to the tip of your finger is usually enough to give you an idea. Keep in mind that what you're tasting will be diluted in the actual dish, spread throughout and mixed with the flavors of every other thing you add, so don't be disturbed if it seems a bit too strong. This is especially true in the case of certain herbs and spices that are especially powerful, Rosemary continuing to be a good example, and one that I will discuss more in the next section.
2a.      Remember that you're trying to eat delicious food, NOT spices with interesting textures. As I said above, the flavors will seem stronger when tried all alone, but until you have a little more experience with them go slow, add them a little time, taste test frequently. It's not unusual when I start trying a dish with a new spice for ten or twelve spoons to make their way into my sink before the meal is ever finished. And I learned this the hard way. The first time I tried cooking with Rosemary I added too much, I treated it like I would treat Garlic, an old familiar friend whose company I just couldn't get enough of, piled into a pot of Beef Stew like gold in a leprechaun's pot. The results were horrifying. Rosemary, when used properly adds a little Springtime freshness to any meal, when used improperly it is like a pine forest was violently ill in your mouth.
2b.      This isn't to disparage spicy food, a good bowl of Spicy Chili or a rich bowl of Curried... anything, is fantastic. Just make sure to keep it balanced so you're tasting food, not just spice. Tender tubers, mouthfuls of meats,  vivid vegetables, perfect pasta, they're all just as important as the seasonings you use, every flavor there to balance and sustain every other in harmony. Eventually it becomes second nature, keeping that balance in mind, remembering each flavor individually and as a community, but until it does, just take it slow and keep what I've said in mind, not because I'm some kind of Seasoning Guru, just because, for whatever crazy reason, I genuinely care how your dinner turns out.