Homemade Seasoning Salt

“A man must eat a peck of salt with his friend, before he knows him.”
- Miguel de Cervantes

“Take it with a grin of salt.”
- Yogi Berra

"Seasoned salt?! Has he gone mad?"
- you

OK, I hear you. You see, seasoned salt and me?—we go back a long time. My parents always had it in the house and given the choice between regular, bland iodized salt and the royalty that was Lawry's Seaoned Salt, well, the choice is obvious. Through the years I moved on from Lawry's, I still keep it in the house but use it for specific dishes, but I added Zatarain's Creole Seasoning to the collection, Old Bay Seasoning, and my all-time favourite Irie Seasoning Salt, a local brand. This recipe exists because of my love of Irie. I was getting low and decided to go and buy some to keep the larder stocked but the store didn't carry it anymore! I went to thier website and found another store and they no longer stocked it! My panic was such I was forced me to annoyingly use four! exclamation marks in this blog alone! On returning to the website I found I could order some and be done with it but decided to make my own. I have in the past made my own Steak Spice and Bay Seasoning, and I regularly make my own mayonnaise and butter (recipes to follow) now. So, armed with the last of my Irie Seasoning Salt jar I looked at the ingredients and went to work pulling magnetic spice jars off my fridge. It didn't take long to come up with something I prefer over the original. If you decide to make your own I fully expect you to tweek the final mix to your liking. I changed a few things from the original ingredients to what I had on hand and personal preferences (such as I left out mustard powder but added dried thyme—nex time I may add some of my homemade curry powder). There you have it.

HOMEMADE SEASONING SALT

Ingredients
1/3 c Maldon Sea Salt
3 tbsp organic cane sugar
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp dried dill
1 1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1/2 tsp tumeric
1 tsp Accent seasoning (aka MSG - optional)

Method
1. Grind Maldon Salt, sugar, and graulated garlic with a mortar and pestle (or spice grinder). I find these spices a bit course, you can skip this step and just mix everything together if you like.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix.

3. Sprinkle on anything you like.

Mulligatawny

Kramer: A hot bowl of mulligatawny would hit the spot.
Elaine: Mulligatawny?
Kramer: Yes, it's a delightful Hindu concoction simmered to perfection by one of the great soup artisans in the modern era.
Elaine: Who, the Soup Nazi?
Kramer: He's not a Nazi, Elaine. He just happens to be a little eccentric. Most geniuses are.
- from Seinfeld

“A soup like this is not the work of one man. It is the result of a constantly refined tradition. There are nearly a thousand years of history in this soup.”
Willa Cather - Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)

"Mulligatawny!" - Newman

Mulligatawny is one of those wonderful warming soups that goes down so well in the winter. It is one of the many delicious things the British took home after the occupation of India. Mulligatawny, a Tamil term literally translates to pepper water ("millagu" means pepper and "thanni" means water), it has as many variations as returning Brits, with coconut milk, without coconut milk, with chicken, apples, tomato purée, chopped apple, chutney, desiccated coconut and so on.

Why Mulligatawny? Why not Mulligatawny? I like the fact that this is a dish that has travelled countries and been loved-up by many cooks and still retains the accent of its place of origin. It is a soup that is equally at home in hot climates and cold. I love the flavours, the heat, it's fun to say. Mulligatawny; it makes my whole mouth dance. More important, I had a batch of homemade chicken stock ready to go, I had chicken, I had homemade curry powder. Selah. The best reason of all is that I had never made it before so I set to scourlng my cookbook collection and noticed all the related recipes were similar so with a couple of veggie substitutions I was ready to go. This is a very simple dish that comes together more easily than a family reunion. The Tamils call it pepper water, my wife calls it Paulligatawny, I call it a success and think I'll have a bowl now.


MULLIGATAWNY
Ingredients
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 c carrot, diced small
1 c celery, diced small
1/2 cup parsnip, diced small
1/2 medium onion, diced small
1 tbsp + 1 tsp curry homemade powder (or store bought) (home recipe to follow)
1 tsp chipotle chili powder
1/4 c flour
6 cups homemade chicken stock (or store bought low sodium chicken stock)
1 c unsweetened coconut milk (1/2 can)
3 free range chicken thighs, diced small-medium
2 tbsp organic lemon juice
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
1 tsp dried parsley (purely aesthetic)

Method
1. In a heavy pot heat the butter over medium heat. Throw in the carrot, celery, onion, and parsnip and cook until nice and soft.

2. Mix in curry powder, chipotle powder and flour and stir for around 5 minutes. Slowly stir in the stock and coconut milk making sure to avoid lumps.

3. Throw in the diced chicken and dried parsley and simmer until the chicken is completely cooked.

4. Finish with the lemon juice, taste, and season with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.


BASIC CURRY POWDER (adapted from Jeena's Kitchen)
Ingredients
8 Tbsp Cumin Powder
7 Tbsp Coriander Powder
4 Tbsp Turmeric Powder
2 Tbsp Ginger Powder
2 Tbsp Fenugreek Powder
1 Tbsp Chipoltle Chilli Powder
1 Tbsp Ancho Chili Powder

Method
Put everthing in a glass jar and shake like you mean it. Store in an airtight container in a dark, cool place.

Sun Dried Tomato and Roasted Pumpkin Seed Pesto

SUN DRIED TOMATO AND ROASTED PUMPKIN SEED PESTO
Ingredients
½ c pumpkin seeds
1 tsp sea salt
¾ c grated Parmesan cheese
1 c sun dried tomatoes in oil (Preferably Allessia Sun Dried Tomatoes. Reserve oil)
6-8 fresh basil leaves, sliced thin
1 clove of garlic, minced
½ c oil from reserved from the sun dried tomato

Method
1. In a dry fry pan roast the pumpkin seeds. Toss regularly. They roast quickly so keep your eyes, nose and ears on them. For doneness they will swell a little (like tiny balloons) and you may notice small wisps of smoke from the pan; you don't want to smell burning but a pleasant nutty aroma; lastly, listen for them hissing lightly and popping.

2. Put everything but the oil in a food processor and pulse to blend. Then slowly add the oil until you get a nice paste. Stop and scrape down the sides as needed. If there isn't enough reserved oil to get the pesto to a consistancy that you're happy with use extra virgin olive oil (or pumpkin seed oil, the light green variety not the brown as it's bitter)

Roasted Vegetable and Black Kale Soup

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it,

and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth
seeking the successive autumns.
- George Eliot (1819–1880)

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
- J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973)

Our October yard has begun hoarding piles of golden leaves. As I watch from my kitchen, our neighbour's black kitten, Moe, steals among the piles in search of something more appetizing than gold. I love Autumn. I love the smells, sounds, colours, and tastes of this sensual season and am inspired to spend more time in the kitchen than usual. Rich, sweet and earthy Fall flavours are pure, primitive comfort after being outside sweeping the leaves off my porch. Autumn is the season of Crockpot cooking, big pots of homemade stew or soup served with thick slices of crusty homemade bread. The evenings arrive earlier and darkness beats me home from work, what could be better than stepping into the kitchen and heating up a big bowl of hearty soup? I would think nothing, but I watch as kitten Moe chases a big grey squirrel along the fence-tops into the distance. To each her own.

What I cook is partially dictated by what we get in our weekly organic produce delivery. Mama Earth Organics is a wonderful resource, delivering an array of seasonal organic (and mostly local) produce to our porch. Most of the dishes I make in a week are an answer to a question inadvertently created by the friendly people at Mama Earth, the question is—what are you going to cook with this? The soup below was today's answer to Ontario fresh garlic (huge cloves) and field tomatoes, Swan White Acorn squash and Black Kale (from Pfenning's Organic Farms). The difficulty for me was finding a way to counter the usual bitter taste of kale. Normally, I would have cooked the kale with smokey bacon and broth in the style of Southern mustard greens, but Autumn suggested soup to me. I went online and read that roasted vegetables and beans could balance that bitterness with their mix of savoury and starch. Obviously I had to add some double smoked bacon (Cumbrae Farms) to the mix because I love that smokey flavour in soup. According to my wife Leah, this was the correct answer. So here we have it and I share it with you. Happy Autumn, happy Fall, happy harvest. Enjoy.

ROASTED VEGETABLE AND BLACK KALE SOUP
Ingredients
3 medium carrots, peeled and quartered lengthwise
1 large tomato, quartered
1 large parsnip, peeled and quartered lenthwise
1 large sweet onion, cut into 8 wedges
1 small Swan White squash, peeled, seeded and cut into half inch thick wedges
5 big garlic cloves (6 small), peeled
2 rashers of good quality double-smoke bacon, cut into lardons (optional)
1 tbsp olive oil 6 cups or more of low sodium chicken broth, divided
1 tbsp tomato paste
4 cups of finely chopped black kale, stems removed
2 tbsp parsley leaves, chopped
3 large fresh thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
1 19 fl oz can of white kidney beans, rinsed and drained

Method
1. Preheat oven to 400F / 200C / Gas Mark 6. Oil a rasting pan and arrange carrots, parsnip, squash, onion, tomato and garlic on sheet. Toss with a little more olive oil and sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Roast vegetables until they are browned and tender about 45 minutes, stirring ocassionally. Once finished removed from oven and allow to cool a little while.

2. Cut the squash parsnip and carrots into a half inch pieces and place in food processor. Add tomatoes garlic cloves and onion and puree until smooth. Pour a half cup broth onto the baking sheet; scrape up any browned bits. Transfer broth and vegetable puree to large pot. Add 5½ cups broth, kale, thyme and bay leaf to pot. Bring to boil. Reduce heat. Simmer uncovered until kale is tender, about 30 minutes.

3. At this point fry the bacon in a frypan until nicely browned and pour out onto a paper towel to removed excess grease.

4. Add the reserved carrots, parsnips and squash along with the beans, bacon (if used), tomato paste and parlsey to the soup. Simmer 8 minutes to let the flavors get friendly with one another. At this point feel free to add more broth to soup if it is too thick for your taste. Season with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. Discard thyme sprigs and bay leaf.

To Serve
Garnish with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Roast Goose with Apple Sausage Stuffing, Cumberland Sauce and Sweet Potatoes

ROAST GOOSE
Ingredients
1 goose (4.5 kg/10 lb)
sea salt
freshly cracked pepper
5 freshly ground allspice berries apple sausage stuffing (recipe below)

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 425F / 220C / Gas Mark 7

2. Season the goose, inside and out, liberally with the sea salt, pepper and allspice.

3. Stuff the bird with your stuffing (This will add moisture and help to flavour the meat). Sew up the vent with a trussing needle and kitchen thread. Use the needle (or a fork) to pierce the skin all over which will allow the fat to render out during the roasting. Place the needle almost parallel to the skin so it is the skin, not the meat, that is pricked.

4. Pour a glass of water into the bottom of the pan to stop the released fat from burning. Place the goose breast-up on a rack in the roasting pan. Stick it in the oven. After 30 minutes turn the oven down to 350F / 180C / Gas Mark 4. Using a baster, transfer most of the fat to a bowl (the amount of fat that is rendered off during the cooking will boggle the mind).

5. Return it to the oven. Baste every 15 minutes or so with the drippings. Remove excess fat to the bowl.

6. At the 2 hour mark (very, very carefully) check the temperature in the thigh and breast. USDA recommends cooking whole duck or goose to a safe minimum internal temperature of 165 °F as measured using a food thermometer. Check the internal temperature in the innermost part of the thigh and wing and the thickest part of the breast.

N.B. - Goose fat gets ridiculously hot, do not use a plastic baster as it will melt. Metal or silicon is your best choice.

APPLE SAUSAGE STUFFING
Ingredients
1½ med onion
1 lb pork sausage (about 3 big links, removed from the casings)
2 Granny Smith apples (or another tart type)
½ tsp caraway seeds
3 tbsp minced sage
1 tsp sea salt ½ freshly ground pepper
8 slices whole wheat bread, dried and broken up
¼ cup toasted and chopped walnuts
¼ cup toasted and chopped cashews
¼ lbs unsalted butter (I like uncultured), melted
2 large eggs, beaten lightly
½ cup (approximately, maybe less) low sodium chicken broth

Method
1. Over a medium-high heat, cook the sausage. Break it up as it cooks until it's completely cooked and lightly browned.

2. Mix the first ten ingredients together in a big mixing bowl.

3. Pour the melted and eggs over the mixture and toss together until you a a moist mix.

CUMBERLAND SAUCE
Ingredients
½ c red wine
½ c beef stock
1 shallot, minced
1 c red currant jelly (if none on hand raspberry will do)
2½ tbsp slivered orange peel
½ tsp freshly ground ginger
½ tsp Dijon mustard
juice from 1 orange
juice from 1 lemon
pinch ground cloves
pinch cayenne sea salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tsp cornstarch

Method
1. Heat everything together (except cornstarch, salt and pepper) for 5 minutes.

2. Mix the cornstarch in a little water and add to sauce and stir to thicken. Salt and pepper to taste.

OVEN ROASTED SWEET POTATOES
Ingredients
4 boiled Sweet Potatoes
½ Walla Walla Onion, in wedges
2 garlic cloves, sliced
3 tbsp goose fat couple of sprigs of thyme
1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Method
In a large bowl, combine sweet potatoes, onion wedges, garlic slices, fat and thyme sprigs and toss well.

Place vegetables in shallow roasting pan. Bake in 425F / 218C / Gas Mark 7 oven, turning frequently, for about 30 minutes or until vegetables are soft and golden brown.

Add pecans during the last 10 minutes of baking. Drizzle with vinegar. Season with salt and pepper.

To Serve I put the stuffing down on the plate first and then top with slices of the roasted goose. Around the plate I scatter the roasted sweet potatoes and then drizzle the Cumberland sauce over the top.

Home-Made Peanut Butter

“If you can't control your peanut butter, you can't expect to control your life.”

- Bill Watterson (1958-)

To answer the famous query of who got chocolate on whose peanut butter? I would say the Aztecs. Just a hunch. Anyway, I'm not going to get into the silly question of who invented peanut butter as it seems to revolve around who patented it first and ignores the people like the Aztecs who made a paste of peanuts centuries before the patents were forwarded in the late 1800s. There are peanut "butters" being eaten around the world and poor dogs in kitchens in faraway countries are probably slobbering like mad, tongue working to get at the dollop stuck to the roof of their mouths by mischievous owners.

Peanut butter is one of those products that is cheaper to buy than to make. Home-made peanut butter is so good I am willing to pay the extra and really, what am I missing? Partially hydrogenated palm oil? Preservatives? No problem. This recipe is so versatile that it really needs only your attention to detail and taste-buds. After making it once you should be able to alter it to your liking.

Ingredients
3 cups of roasted nuts (whatever rocks your boat, I've done dry-roasted peanuts, hickory-smoked almonds, etc)
2 (or more) tbsp of light oil (I like to match the oil with the nut, peanut oil for peanuts, hazelnut for hazelnut, and so on)
honey, to taste

Method
Put the nuts in a blender and pulse to start breaking them down. Add a little oil and pulse some more. Repeat until you get the desired consistancy. I like to let it puree for a while to really get a smooth result, but stop earlier if you like it chunky. I always finish with a little honey to round off the saltiness. I suggest putting a tiny amount of honey, taste, and repeat until you get a balance you're happy with.

Chili Blanco

"From morning till night, sounds drift from the kitchen, most of them familiar and comforting....On days when warmth is the most important need of the human heart, the kitchen is the place you can find it; it dries the wet sock, it cools the hot little brain."

- E.B.White (1899-1985)

"Food is not about impressing people. It's about making them feel comfortable."
- Ina Garten (1948-)

The idea of making chili has been on my mind a lot lately. My wife and I love Stagg's Steak House Chili. It is a love unconditional. But we rarely keep pre-made food at home, I would prefer to make something rather than buy it. As a culture we are moving further and further away from cooking the basics, forgetting that food always tastes better home-made. The food companies that claim their pre-prepared things are better than you can do yourself are snake-oil salesmen. There's a ridiculous Clubhouse commercial where a woman claims that the brand's Gravy Mix and turkey drippings are better than making it from scratch, how stupid do they think people are? They just spent hours cooking a turkey for loved-ones and they blow off good gravy for powdered? It's sad if people are. This is not to say that there are some products, Stagg's recipe for Steak House Chili for one, that are exceptional. These rare, shining examples are the ones that make me want to cook--to create a version at home that is as good, but most likely better than the dish than inspired it.

On the way to work this morning I could see the trees starting to change colour along the Don valley. The cooler weather and shorter days are coming. During this time of year I can't help but think of all those comforting autumn foods, and the best of all in my mind is chili. Chili is chunky comfort. So I got home and makd a batch of chili blanco (or white chili, also known as chicken chili). As I've been searching through chili recipes trying to find a version close to Stagg's, I've come acros a few for chili blanco. It is one of those recipes that you can taste the dish just by reading the ingredient list and every version tasted good. What makes it such a great and simple recipe is that you use precooked chicken (those rotisserie jobbies you see in the grocery store works great, or that leftover bits from yesterdays roast chicken) and the rest of the ingredients are mostly canned stuff that I usually have in my pantry. So what I give you is the version I came up with, which is made from scratch. And nothing is better than scratch.

CHILI BLANCO
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp minced fresh jalapeño chile
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 can (398 ml) cream-style corn
1 can (125 ml) chopped green chilies
2 1/2 cups low sodium organic chicken broth
1 can (540 ml) navy beans, drained and rinsed
2-3 cups shredded cooked chicken
1-2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
Sea Salt and fresh ground White Pepper

Method
1. Add onion and cook until tender.
2. Mix in garlic, jalapeño, green chile peppers, cumin, oregano, and ground white pepper. Cook together to let flavours mingle.
3. Add bell pepper, navy beans, cream-style corn, chicken broth. Bing to a boil then reduce heat, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.
4. Stir in chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the Cheddar cheese and serve immediately. A dollop of sour cream would go down a treat.

To Finish
I topped the finished dish with sour cream and sprinkled over a pinch of Ancho Chili Powder. It serves between 4 to 6.