Spice World: Part 1

The dessert pepper

The Chef Tools salt and spices department fascinates me. I’m always finding new and interesting seasonings hidden in there. I’m so fascinated that I think I’ll make it a regular feature of this blog to highlight the salts, spices, seasonings, chilies and more in the department. The Spice Girls reference is just serendipitous … .

Today: new additions to the spice department.

The lovely people over at India Tree have imported a couple of new and exotic items for our consumption. They were added to ChefTools.com on Tuesday. Here’s a rundown and some facts about each spice and seasoning we added:

Green Peppercorns: These furious little balls of pungent spice are actually just unripe black peppercorns. Their youth gives them a vigorous flavor, slightly sour; a round flavor, as opposed to the square kick of black pepper.  Perfect for soups, stocks and pasta sauce.

Pink Peppercorns: The dessert pepper. That’s right, these mild peppers have a slightly (slightly) sweet flavor that complements sugary desserts, especially ones made with sweet and sour fruits like strawberries, rhubarb and raspberries. Plus they’re beautiful and sourced from a tiny island in the East Indies.

Turmeric: one of those miracle spices. Not only is it delicious and essential in curries and American yellow mustard, but it’s also renowned in holistic circles as a digestive aid. Turmeric is a great natural food coloring (yellow, of course) and is pungent and mixes well with salt (I always add turmeric to my home fries).

Mexican oregano: Like Italian oregano, except that it’s different. Mexican oregano is citrusy, as opposed to the Italian variety’s straight-up sweetness. In spicy foods, it holds its own better than its Mediterranean cousin (they’re actually biologically unrelated). Good in chili and salsa.

Cinnamon quills: What’s better than a stick of Ceylon cinnamon in a holiday drink? Delicious in apple cider on Halloween night or after Thanksgiving dinner; or in hot brandy or whiskey on Christmas Eve. Also, grind these sticks on toast, on desserts or in Mexican preparations.

Chilies: This is actually an offshoot of our spice department, and it’s entirely new. We’ve added chipotle, ancho, Thai (bird’s eye) and chilie de arbor chilies. For heat, shred the Thai or de arbors in any Asian or Mexican (or South American or Central American) dish. The chipotles and anchos are for depth and for condiments like salsa.

Mushrooms: Another new spice-related department. We now offer dry shiitakes, porcinis, morels and a mixed bag of mushrooms. Bring these dry ‘shrooms back to delicious life with a little hot water. My favorite among these fun-guys is the shiitake; a piping hot sweet and sour soup with just shiitakes and frozen tofu swimming around is excellent, and the perfect fall/winter dish.

Popcorn: actually, corn kernels.  This is a great fall snack. Just looking at the package reminds me of raked leaves, the smell of a billowing chimney and … scarecrows. This is a bag of several varieties of corn. Each has a slightly different flavor and produces a bowl of popcorn that has enough flavor without salt, sugar or butter.

The Mystery of Davy Crack'it

Raised in the woods so's he knew every tree, cracked him a nut when he was only three.

So, we’ve been selling these metallic woodland creatures like toasted acorns over the past few days, especially today, and we have no idea why. Sure, they’re cute, they’re useful and rather funny – but how do people know that they exist and that ChefTools.com has them?

Usually when we see many sales for one item it’s because it was on The Today Show, or received a favorable review in Cook’s Illustrated or The New York Times. But we can’t find any mention of this little guy anywhere. And our fancy computers tell us that no one is really searching Google, Bing or Yahoo for it. So what is it? Why is Davy so popular all of a sudden?

I’d like to think that this is a zombie- like curse, but instead of craving brains, a bunch of people woke up one morning with a very specific thirst for cute, squirrel-shaped nutcrackers made by Norpro. 

So help us out readers. Do you have any clues as to why Mr. Crack’it is this year’s Tickle-Me-Elmo?

Calphalon Update ...

… As promised, we’re adding more great Calphalon products to ChefTools.com. Since yesterday, we have added the following fry pans and sauté pans and saucepans: 8-inch Commercial Omelette Pan 12-inch Commercial Omelette Pan 1-1/2 quart Commercial Saucepan with lid 2-1/2 quart Commercial Saucepan with lid 3 quart Commercial Saute Pan with lid

Calphalon Commercial 3 quart saute pan

You can find all the pans here. For re-emphasis: we’re carrying pans from Calphalon’s Unison and Commercial lines. The Commercial pans are made to stand up to a beating and keep on cooking. The Unison series features coatings of SLIDE or SEAR nonstick, a revolutionary nonstick coating that lasts longer and allows you to cook with less fat.

Calphalon arrives

Calphalon Hard Anodized Omelette Pan

Calphalon is here, and we’re very excited about it. 

Literally just a few minutes ago, ChefTools.com launched its first Calphalon department. We’re rolling it out with only a few select products, likely to add more in the future.

Calphalon is both a leading cookware brand, and a leader in cookware technology. We wanted to offer products that highlight those strengths – and we’ve priced these pots and pans very competitively. 

We’re offering four Calphalon Unison pans equipped with either SLIDE or SEAR nonstick technology. These coatings last longer and offer superior protection from sticking even at extremely high temperatures. An added benefit is that you don’t have to use a lot – or any – fat or oil, thus a lower overall fat content in your meal. Want to sear a pork roast? Throw it on the preheated 12-inch Omelette pan and sear away without adding any fat to the pan. Sautéing asparagus? Sprinkle lightly with olive oil for taste and then throw the stalks in a pan for a couple of minutes.  

Calphalon Unison 4 quart soup pot

We also have two excellent pans from the Hard Anodized line. These pans are super tough, like cooking with a hollowed out tank. Calphalon produced the Hard Anodized line so home chefs could enjoy the durability, reliability and performance of pans used in commercial kitchens. These pans can go from the stovetop, to the oven to the broiler all in the same cooking session – and they can do it over and over and over. Like with the aforementioned pork roast, you could sear it on the stovetop and then toss it in the oven in the same pan to finish cooking.

Altogether we’re offering five Calphalon pans – all at reduced prices, some nearly 50% off – plus a pan set and replacement lids. Enjoy the pans, and we hope you share in our excitement!

Only 1 Left In Stock! ( ... but more on the way)

Le Creuset 16-piece dinnerware set (only four of 16 pieces shown)

These awesome Le Creuset dinnerware sets have been flying off our shelves since we added them to ChefTools.com a couple of weeks ago. To wit: we only have one dinnerware set in stock at the moment – so hurry to the site if you want a 16-piece dinnerware set in elegant white. 

The good news is that you can still order the sets. We can get more of these in our warehouse within 2 weeks. It’s not ideal, but these sets are extremely popular. I have a feeling there will be an even bigger rush on them before Christmas. (Oh, and the other good news is that these dinnerware sets ship for free!)

These sets include four dinner plates, four salad plates, four soup bowls and four mugs. I own a couple of the mugs myself, and they are top notch – it’s like drinking out of mighty boulder hollowed out to accommodate coffee. I think that’s a good indication of the quality of these pieces. 

So place an order, get the free shipping and make yourself or someone else very happy!

Big Vegetarian Tuna

I’m not one to go nuts over vegetarian meat substitutes because nothing can approximate the taste and texture of animal protein. But since I was a meat eater for a majority of my life, I do appreciate a good meat-like meal.  And I recently found a recipe for one that is a 98 percent approximation of tuna fish. 

Its tastiness can only be described with an expletive. 

Hot chickpeas

This is a good meal to make if you’re A) vegetarian or vegan, B) looking for a healthy meal – or at least something healthier than tuna, which tends to contain mercury, or C) in need of a quick meal. Here goes:

Grab two cans of chickpeas (garbanzo beans), a jar of pickles, some black pepper, soy sauce and hot sauce, if you like. The final ingredient is very important: Annie’s Goddess dressing (some people use vegan mayo, but Annie’s has a nice lemon flavor in it). 

• Mash the garbanzos in a mixing bowl with a potato masher, or shred them in a food processor (not to a paste, just a few pulses until they’re chunky)

• Dice your pickles (I used bread and butter, but any type will do)

• Mix everything to your liking – and I like a little extra dressing.   

Only 5 minutes should have passed, and you’ll have enough vegetarian tuna for at least five sandwiches, or a week’s worth of lunch. Serve open faced, on toast, with avocados, melted cheese or however you like. You will be astounded at how closely mashed chickpeas and salad dressing tastes like delicious, delicious tuna fish.

Pacific Northwest Gold

I can never get enough smoked salmon, a Pacific Northwest treat. So when my neighbor, Sean, surprised me with a beautiful salmon he caught in West Seattle, I decided to cure and smoke it. Sean has been smoking his bounty for years and he offered this treasure as a way of trying out some other cure recipes.  After discussing the different cures and wood smoke combinations Sean has used in the past, I set out to try my own version. By the way, Sean could easily sell his smoked salmon alongside the packaged brands.

After looking through some of my favorite cookbooks and studying up on flavor combinations, I came up with the following cure recipe. Two books I refer to continuously are The Flavor Bible and Culinary Artistry, both by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg. These books are fantastic for those times when you return from your local farmers market with fresh vegetables but aren’t sure what you want to make. I have also found these books invaluable when cooking without recipes.                                                           

Smoked Salmon Cure

Simply mix the following ingredients together in a mixing bowl:

            - 1 ¼ cups dark brown sugar

            - 1 cup kosher salt

            - 2 tbsp coarse ground black pepper

            - 2 tbsp dry dill

            - 1 teaspoon dry thyme

            - 4 bay leaves (ground fine in spice grinder)

            - 2 tbsp ground brown mustard seeds

            - 1 tbsp ground coriander

            - 1 tbsp ground cumin

            - Zest of 2 oranges

            - Zest of 1 lemon

I placed a large sheet of plastic wrap on top of a sheet of foil to wrap the fish in after applying the cure.  After placing 1/3 of the cure mixture on the plastic, I laid the first salmon fillet skin side down. I spread another 1/3 of the cure over the flesh side of the fillet. Next, I put the second fillet on top of the first (flesh side down). Then I covered the skin side of the second fillet with the remainder of the cure.  I wrapped the fish up tight in the plastic and foil and placed it on a half sheet pan covered with foil. (You need to cover the sheet pan with foil because a good amount of liquid works its way out of the wrapped fish as it cures.)  Finally, I placed a 9 x 13 baking dish with 2 soup cans to weigh the curing fish down. I turned the fish over every 12 hours to allow for even distribution of the curing process.  I cured this particular fish for 72 hours before taking it out and rinsing off the fillets with cold water and allowing them to dry for a few hours to form the pellicle - the layer formed on the surface of the cured fish that is tacky to the touch. This tacky surface allows the smoke to bond to the fish. 

Cured salmon with pellicle formed

I smoked the fish for about 7 hours using alder chips for the first 6 hours and cherry chips for the last hour in a 4-rack smoker, which I placed in my backyard. This particular smoker has an electric element at the bottom that you place a pan full of the wood chips on top of. The photo shows the smoker with the face plate removed. I smoked a couple of Sean’s fillets, too, since he seems to be catching more fish than he knows what to do with. 

4 rack electric smoker

The photo at the top shows the finished product with some items that create some nice flavor pairings for the smoked salmon. I served it with a simple seedless cucumber salad made with rice vinegar, dill, salt and pepper. I also included capers, crostini, Dijon mustard, and crème fraiche with dill.

I spent all day Saturday in anticipation of eating the smoked salmon, drinking cold beer, and watching the Red Sox versus Mariners game. Overall, the smoking required an extreme amount of patience. But it turned out to be a great day … even though the Red Sox lost.

How did these guys find Sean's secret fishing spot?

I want to thank Sean for giving me this beautiful fish and allowing me to use his smoker. I have a feeling I will have an updated fishing license and smoker of my own in the not too distant future. I also want to thank Sean's wife Ruth, for being just as excited as myself when it comes to trying out new recipes. We use each other as recipe guinea pigs when we are feeling creative. Ruth makes a French Onion Soup that simply makes you exhale that comfortably satisfied sigh. Last I want to thank my neighbor Carol, for sharing her love of food and hosting several barbecues over the years. Carol's pretty cool even though she's a Husker fan. I say this in jest, knowing full well that Husker fans are probably the most respectful college football fans in the country. Cheers!