If giving us warm sandy beaches, clear blue waters, and tropical cocktails isn’t enough, we can also thank the Caribbean for introducing the world to grilling. There are several theories on how both grilling as a cooking technique and the term barbeque traveled from the tropics, landing in our backyards.
“What is the one topping you must have on your nachos?”
This is the question I’m asking everyone in our home office, one at a time, as I scoot around in my rolly chair. I’m obviously taking this very seriously, so of course I’m taking detailed notes and responding only with straight-faced mmm-hmm’s and quick nods. I’m not making just any old batch of nachos here. I’m making the nachos of LEGENDS—the nachos you’ll be telling your grandkids about while they gather around your rocking chair in a post-apocalyptic bunker.
How’s your summer going? Is it oh-so-Saucy? As you might remember, I wrote a blog earlier this summer about converting our Seasonings to Sauces—a guide to simple combos to serve alongside your favorite meats and veggies. Now though, I want to go the other way: talk to you about traditional sauces that I used as inspiration to create some of the popular seasonings that we offer.
Raise your hand if you’ve heard of Auguste Escoffier. Now keep it raised if you know why this French culinary legend is so dang famous. Those with your hands still raised might answer, “the brigade de cuisine”—you know, the system that formalized the staff structure in restaurant kitchens? Okay, maybe not. Perhaps you’ll answer with his lasting reputation as the author of the influential cookbook that’s still widely used as a reference text to this day, Le Guide Culinaire. No, we’re not going to be going through the history of Escoffier’s work—I want to talk about mother sauces: what in the world they are and how they’ve directed many of the dishes we eat every day.
I’ll admit it: I have an unhealthy obsession with queso. At any get-together where it’s a part of the spread, don’t expect me to be social. Instead I’ll be hovering over the bowl like a madman, wild-eyed and orange-faced. But can you really blame me? If you think about it, queso is kind of the perfect food. It certainly has all the basic tenets: warmth, cheesiness, spiciness—what else do you need in life? Given the opportunity, I will put that golden gooey deliciousness on everything. In fact, I'll even put queso on my queso. Which is just more queso, but that’s the point.
Summer was made for sauce. Think about it: sweet and smoky (aka swoky) barbecue sauce running down your chin with every succulent bite of a glazey grilled chicken leg. Or a tart and tangy strawberry vinaigrette to toss your farmers market finds with. And naturally, drizzling a little too much warm, buttery caramel sauce over your already melting ice cream. Because summer.
Many of the seasonings I’ve created over the years have been based on the flavors of classic sauces. Buffalo Wing Dry Sauce, Mexican Mole, and Parmesan Pesto are just a few examples. Because we’ve successfully reverse-engineered sauces into seasonings, it has been my long-held belief that a majority (if not all) of our dry seasonings could be used as the base for quick and easy, flavorful sauces. This means your spice cabinets at home are full of even more possibilities than you may have ever realized!
“I found ground cumin in my cabinet that’s a year old… Can I still use it?” We get varying degrees of the “will spices go bad?” question all the time. Not always with cumin of course, and the time ranges from a year to a decade (side note: does anyone have a bottle from when we opened in 2004? Let us know!). But trust me, I’ve answered spice fans’ emails and phone calls about how to get the most out of their seasonings since I’ve worked in the Savory Spice Test Kitchen.
Across the world, these two ingredients are often referred to singularly as coriander but in North America, we distinguish the fresh, flat-leafed herb of the plant by calling it cilantro (which is actually just the Spanish translation of coriander). If a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, then does the same go for coriander? As it turns out, the seeds and leaves of C. sativum have vastly different flavor profiles and culinary uses.
