RCP: Homemade Sazón

For those of you who like sazón and are participating in the Goya boycott, the WAPO posted this recipe:

1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons fine sea salt
2 tablespoons ground achiote powder or sweet paprika

[Jenise]

Haven't made it, but I must opine that, but for color, paprika and achiote are not all that interchangeable. This seasoning needs achiote.

Haven't made it, but I must opine that, but for color, paprika and achiote are not all that interchangeable. This seasoning needs achiote.

You're absolutely right, but the paprika is for those who don't have a source of achiote. Big difference in color.

[Jenise]

I don't own powdered achiote, but I do have a small tub of paste I brought back from Costa Rica. Hey, that gives me an idea for dinner....

We can get the achiote up here, so I may pick some up and give that a try. What is your favourite use for it - anything in particular?

On a Canadian note, I just mixed up a bunch of Montreal steak spice - do you guys down below the border know about that? Here is a recipe

3 Tbsp granulated onion
3 Tbsp black peppercorns
3 Tbsp granulated garlic
2 Tbsp smoked paprika (or regular paprika)
3 Tbsp kosher salt
2 Tbsp chili flakes (cayenne pepper flakes or red pepper flakes also work)
3 tbsp mustard seeds
2 Tbsp coriander seeds
3 Tbsp dill seeds

I put it in the big mortar (thanks Jenise) and apply the pestle just to try and get a uniform grain size. Try it!

[Jenise]

I was given a jar of Montreal Steak Seasoning once, Bill, and I recall that it reminded me of the flavor I know of as Pastrami, right down to the mustard seeds that would be something traditional to find in the crust. Like corned beef if you smother it with spice and smoke it. Really great flavor.

I was given a jar of Montreal Steak Seasoning once, Bill, and I recall that it reminded me of the flavor I know of as Pastrami, right down to the mustard seeds that would be something traditional to find in the crust. Like corned beef if you smother it with spice and smoke it. Really great flavor.

I like Montreal steak seasoning. I have two or three different brands of it. I even use it on other things sometimes.

I've never used Montreal steak seasoning in cooking, but I'm very fond of Montreal smoked meat, which is made using this spice mixture.

-Paul W.

...it reminded me of the flavor I know of as Pastrami...

Bingo.

Inspired by the Montreal Steak Seasoning thread, I had a huge T-bone seasoned with the same and washed down with a
Motto Zinfandel. And one of my 6/$1 Olathe corn-on-the-cobs.

T bone sounds great.
I had a plate of garlic butter prawns with avocado and a bottle of BC Pinot Gris. On a health kick.....

[Jenise]

T bone sounds great.
I had a plate of garlic butter prawns with avocado and a bottle of BC Pinot Gris. On a health kick.....

No carbs?

Never been a huge carb fan anyway - don't do desserts, and the odd bit of bread does me for carbs.

One of our fave quick dinners is a big Caesar salad (lots of anchovy and a good hit of sriracha in the dressing with added sauteed chicken pieces and token crouton or three. Another is a stir fry, usually with some pork or chicken, but mostly veg (and tofu, but SWMBO is not a fan while I am). I have to keep reminding her that spinach need not be steamed and rendered down into a sodden mess to be tasty! During this isolation she has been cooking much more, none of it for me as she seems to be specializing in cookies and sweet stuff she can give to friends.

Of course we do have carnivore Fridays when the steak hits the grille, usually accompanied by mushrooms (which while not green, and from a different kingdom, I consider honourary vegetables).

Hmm - I wonder if I could do a veg dish using all white veg? Salad of endives, white asparagus, and hakurei turnip on a bed of charred cauliflower, topped with enokis? Sorry, mind was wandering a bit there......

[Jenise]

I once had a beautiful white salad in San Francisco. There was a tendril or two of the tender inner part of a frisee, but otherwise: burrata, white truffle, endive, white asparagus and white corn (an intact slice from a cooked ear, very clever) and maybe raw mushrooms. Really fabulous, both visually and flavor-wise.

Hmmm - finish off with a quail egg with the yolk removed in the centre, filled with a spoon of caviar for the only pigment in the dish and that would look pretty darn good!

[Jenise]

It would! And I remembered that the raw mushrooms were enoki. Beautiful things, those.

I remember one all-white dish quite vividly. Back in the early 70s, the Cadillac dealer across the street from my store had an inexpensive luncheonette on its second floor. Occasionally, I would drop in for the special of the day. One day: white plate, cauliflower, mashed potatoes with white gravy, white bread slice, and a chicken-fried steak smothered in white gravy. Monochromatic, indeed.

I made a black-and-orange dinner for Halloween once. ::boo!:: I used a jack o'lantern cookie cutter on yam slices.... Found it:

ORANGE AND BLACK HALLOWE'EN DINNER

Hors d'Oeuvres

Fruit Salad, of cantaloupe, orange, black grapes, and black figs
Baked Salmon, on pumpernickel, with orange hollandaise, and salmon & lumpfish caviar

Menu

Ginger-Soy Baked Acorn Squash, with wild rice and orange peppers
Smoky Pumpkin Soup, with pumpernickel croutons
Filet Mignon, with jack o'lantern yam chips

Dessert

Pumpkin Chiffon Pie, with toasted pecans

Excellent, Jeff.

Although today's kids would probably be looking at a plate in shades of red and black a la goth TV shows.

[Jenise]

Earlier I wrote a complete response to Jeff. It never showed up here. For those who wonder sometimes if it's just you--happens to me sometimes too.

ANYWAY what I said was: bravo Jeff! I remember that meal from your initial post about it, very impressed. Have only ever done one color-related meal, and I wasn't the host but was invited to a participatory dinner themed "black and white". Of course, everyone dressed appropriately, and I recall the host made the famous Spanish dish Moors Y Christians. Strangely can't recall what I contributed but I do remember that someone did scallops with squid ink pasta.

I remember that meal from your initial post about it, very impressed.

By the way, it was Halloween 1999.

Thank you, both! I seem to recall having more trouble shopping for it than making it but so it goes. ("Yes, I'd like yams that are rather cylindrical so I can cut a whole bunch of even slices...")

[Jenise]

I remember that meal from your initial post about it, very impressed.

By the way, it was Halloween 1999.

Are you saying that you didn't post it on some old iteration of WLDG? If not, then I'm pretty sure you mentioned it since. The Jack O'Lantern yams really stand out and nobody else would have done them!

[Jenise]

Might have come up in a thread about food in a color theme. I recall sharing that I was once asked to do a blue-and-yellow themed meal for a L.A. Rams game. I passed.