Prime Cuts

When most people go on vacation they hunt for postcards, key chains, shot glasses or other small trinkets to bring home as mementos of where they have been. While those things are nice, I have never been one to much care for spending money on postcards and key chains. I usually like the photos that I take better than the postcards and the fact that the photos are digital means that I can edit and publish them instead of having to hang on to a piece of card stock. I’m not a key chain person. Just give me the keys necessary to get through the day and I’m fine. Shot glasses and other small trinkets can be fun, especially if they’re a bit funky and fun. So, what do I hunt for when on vacations or look forward to when family or friends head away to foreign lands? Hot sauces, spices and oils.

Growing up with a Jamaican step-father I have a deep passion for spicy foods. When I was young I wasn’t allowed to get up from the table until my plate was cleared no matter how spicy it was. As I grew up I became intrigued by the different layers that hot sauces, curries, jerk seasonings and peppers presented to my palette. Some immediately sent excruciating stinging pain through my lips and the tip of my tongue while others had a deep smoky spice accompanied by a light burn minutes after eating and in the deep regions of my throat. I began experimenting and researching different types of sauces, spices and peppers with the goal of educating myself on all things spicy.  No, this is not to say that everything must be over-sauced in mouth-scorching hot sauce or so much spice that you need an ice-scraper to get it off. I appreciate properly seasoned and sauced foods and have grown my range to not be so simple as to think that Red Hot is the only sauce available.

Once I began to travel more for business trips and vacations, especially to the Carribean islands, I started to seek out collecting different hot sauces, seasonings and oils from around the world. Now when family or friends travel they know what will put a big smile on my face when they come back. I’ve had jerk sauces and seasonings that I bought from women who were cooking it in their kitchens and then selling their concoctions in the open markets the next day and have tried spicy oils where a drop into a vat of chili turns it spicy throughout, among many other experiences. What always amazes me is the variety of combinations and different flavor layers that are created by using, in general, the same ingredients. It’s simply incredible.

Being fellow foodies, I wonder if, when you travel, do you hunt for unique spices, oils or sauces to bring home with you, even if they’re not spicy?

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Photo Credit: ASurroca

Here is a favorite spice rub of mine for chicken that is a great thing to do for summer barbeques.   I love to prepare this on the grill, but not really on the grill?!   I get my grill about medium hot (can hold hand over hottest part for at least 5 sec.) and place a thick cast iron skillet or thick metal tray, saute pan, or sizzle platter…directly on the grill.   Let this blackening plate heat thoroughly before you cook any food on it.  While waiting for the plate to heat up prepare your chicken by patting it thoroughly dry and preparing the spice rub, recipe follows.

Joe’s Bird Blackening Spice Rub

This spice rub should pack a lot of flavor without being too spicy.  I personally don’t care for food that is so spicy that the simple, natural flavors of the base food are masked.  This rub is full of flavor yet still mellow in terms of spiciness.

Ingredients

1/2 cup Spanish paprika
1/2 cup smoked paprika
1/4 cup chili powder
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup cumin
1/4 cup freshly/finely ground black pepper
1/8 cup cayenne pepper
1/8 cup garlic powder

Preparation

1. Mix all ingredients thoroughly with whisk, and store in an airtight container, taking out only as much as you need at a time.  Will keep fresh and flavorful for 1-2 months.

2. On a clean plate pour out enough spice rub mix to thoroughly coat both sides of however many chicken breasts you are cooking.

3. Place chicken directly on spice mix and pat down with spice to thoroughly coat all exposed surface of chicken breast.   This dry coating of spice rub mix will prevent the chicken from sticking to the blackening plate and become the outer crust of flavor that will keep the juices from the chicken locked in the meat.

4. Place the seasoned chickens directly on the hottest part of the blackening plate on the grill, turning every 5 minutes or so.  The chicken should develop a bit of char, but not as much as if you were to cook it directly on the grill bars.  If your chicken is blackening too much, remove it from the pan and relocate the blackening pan to a less hot part of the grill, giving ample time for the temperature to reduce before returning the chickens to the heat.  The even smoothness of the plate helps create the crust and keeps the crust on the chicken rather than sticking to the grill bars when you try to turn it.

5. Check for doneness by pushing down on the chicken with your index finger, when there is a strong bounce back and the chicken feels firm it is done.  Generally 20-30 minutes for medium to large chicken breasts, and it is always best to cook slow and long at low temperature than quickly at high temperature for foods that must be cooked thoroughly.  If you like, pound the thickest parts of the chicken breast prior to cooking to reduce cooking time.

Enjoy this chicken with a cool dipping sauce such as a chilled homemade ranch or chive sour creme.  These dipping sauces will contrast and refresh the palate against the smokey/spiciness of the blackening spice rub crust.

Enjoy!

P.S. This is great topped with some melted bleu cheese or Gorgonzola and put in a sandwich!

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Photo by: Chinkerfly

1.  When preparing fried food it is best to season lightly with salt just after removing it from the fryer, while the food is still hot and slightly moist.  The salt will cling better and begin to dissolve into the food as the outer layer of grease from frying is slowly reabsorbed back into the food.

2.  Whenever available always use freshly ground/grated spices.  Ground cinnamon stick, freshly cracked black pepper and salt and freshly grated nutmeg, are all examples of easy to find whole spices that make a huge difference when used fresh, and my spice grinder just cost $1 at the dollar store.

3.  Experiment with the different types and coarsenesses of salt, it is a simple flavor enhancing ingredient, but there are many forms of it.  Table salt, kosher salt, coarse sea salt, grey salt, fleur de sel, are just some of the many forms of salt that all work and taste differently.

4.  When preparing stocks for soups or sauces, season with salt and pepper at the end of cooking, as the natural salt content of the liquid will intensify as it reduces, if you salt too heavily, too early, your soup will be doomed!

5.  Dry rubs are simply combinations of dry ground spices and or chopped herbs, and when applied liberally to a good piece of meat add a wallop of flavor. When cooked at high heat the rub will create a crust of flavor that locks in the juices and flavors the meat inside.  When applying spice rubs you can lay it on heavily as the intense flavor of the spices is mellowed by cooking.

6.  Just like dry rubs, wet rubs contain almost entirely dry ground spices, but they are then moistened to the consistency of a loose paste by the addition of small amounts of liquid, often water, wine, or stock.  Where dry rubs tend to be best cooked at high heat, and or seared to create a crisp outer crust, wet rubs are best cooked slowly, at lower heat.  When it is done like this, the flavor is better allowed to penetrate the meat.  You can then crank the heat in the oven for the last 15 minutes of cooking to create a crispy outer crust.

7.  Salt brings out the moisture of things.  It is used as the main ingredient in almost all things cured, brined, and preserved.  You can use this principal to remove water moisture when cooking vegetables, thus intensifying their natural flavor, and reducing water content.  A classic example is breaded and fried eggplant, which has a nasty habit of getting soggy.  Before you bread your eggplant, place the slices on a raised, perforated, cooling rack over some paper towels, season thoroughly with kosher salt, and let the water moisture drip out onto the paper towels for 10-15 minutes.  Now your eggplant parm won’t be all mushy.

8.  When sautéing mushrooms, begin with just oil and a little butter, do not season until the mushrooms begin to get noisy in the pan.  This will tell you that the mushrooms are now beginning to cook and absorb the oil and butter.  When you salt the mushrooms now, the moisture won’t be removed because they have absorbed fat in the pores where water would evaporate from.  Your mushrooms will be more succulent and flavorful when seasoned this way.

9.  Take care when buying butter, salted and unsalted butter can flavor foods cooked with them very differently, especially when cooking desserts and pastries.  I once was showing a new chef how to make chocolate mousse, they followed all the steps correctly and used all the correct ingredients, but it tasted extremely salty.  It was to the point that I thought the chef used table salt instead of granulated sugar by accident.  In reality it was the butter melted in with the chocolate, because the butter we had in the restaurant was salted that week when we normally had unsalted.  That small difference ruined the mousse.

10.  Finally, it’s good to experiment but don’t season with stuff you don’t like, if in doubt, leave it out!  When you are cooking with a spice rub for a large group of people, remember everyone’s individual tastes, and flavor thoroughly but subtly.  Overly spicy isn’t good for everybody, and some strong flavors like mustard, white pepper,  and ginger walk a thin line between pleasant additions to a rub, to completely overpowering.  Best to perfect your rub recipe before you get it on the Christmas roast to feed 20 assorted hungry relatives and friends.

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Photo by: dvortygirl
Contributing author: Joseph M. Gionfriddo

Today Joe shares his absolute love for one of the most basic ingredients in every kitchen, salt.  Ever notice that the best restaurants never have salt shakers on the table?  There is a reason for that.  This is an ingredient that anyone who cooks at home, for friends, or professionally needs to master.  Without knowing how to properly use salt, your dishes will not pop with flavor in the same manner.

Where do I begin to talk about salt…?  It is quite possibly the most important of ingredients you can have in your pantry, or possibly in your entire home/restaurant for that matter.  I remember reading a magazine article about different chefs in Las Vegas and it gave a little bio about each chef along with a favorite dish and small list of favorite ingredients.   While many chefs said kobe beef, foi grois, or truffles, a few said salt… not fleur de sel, or grey Indonesian sea salt…just salt.  I have to say that I did then and still do now, have a much greater respect for those chefs that chose salt, the most basic of ingredients.  Such a small amount can bring a dull piece of food to life, and the simple act of seasoning a dish properly with just the right amount of salt can be the difference between a bad rating and a rave review!

My name is Joseph Gionfriddo and I am in love with salt!

After a successful wine dinner last week where we received rave reviews for a center-cut peppercorn filet mignon, Joe now shares his peppercorn rub recipe with you.

Something I have been doing for a while now is a peppercorn crust on my grilled steaks.  Peppercorn crust on a steak is delicious when done properly, but can easily be messed up and overdone.   Most people who have ever bitten down on a large unexpected peppercorn, remember the taste, and wouldn’t ever think of eating a peppercorn crusted steak.  However when applied correctly, a peppercorn crust or rub will mellow during cooking and not overpower the meat, but instead enhance the flavor.

The following recipe is for a basic peppercorn rub which is not overly peppery, or spicy, and is a good starting point for those people who are a little timid about completely covering their steak with spices.

Note: When I make this recipe I grind the peppercorns in an electric spice grinder until they are just a little bit bigger than the holes in a table pepper shaker, about 2x the size of table pepper.  More importantly, I grind the pepper a day or two in advance of when I will be using it to allow it to mellow, as same day fresh pepper tends to be very strong.

Joe’s Peppercorn Rub

Will thoroughly coat 4-6 medium steaks

Ingredients
3 tbsp ground pepper (see Note above)
2 tsp coarse sea salt
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp onion powder

Preparation

• Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

• Place spice mix on a plate or flat surface and spread out to the size of the steaks you will be coating.

• Coat steaks by pressing only the sides which will be in contact with the cooking medium firmly into the spice mix.  There is no need to coat the edges that will not be in contact with the heat.

• Cook steaks to desired temperature.  The cooking process will mellow the pepper flavor and gently infuse it into the steaks.

• If you desire a more powerful peppercorn flavor, use freshly ground peppercorns that are not ground as fine.

• If you desire less peppery flavor, spread the spice mix more thinly on the seasoning plate and do not press the steaks as firmly into the seasoning.

You can make extra ahead of time and store in a tightly sealed jar but only take out as much as you need per cooking, and never return seasoning that has been used on the seasoning plate with raw meat back into the storage jar.

For steaks seasoned with this spice mix I suggest pairing with a bold and boisterous red wine such as Malbec or Cabernet Sauvignon.  During our most recent wine dinner, peppercorn crusted filet mignon was paired with Luigi Bosca Single Vineyard D.O.C. Malbec.

Enjoy!

You can download a PDF version of this Peppercorn Rub Recipe.

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Photo by: shadowfall