Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Ten on Tuesday: Savory Spice Shop OKC Anniversary Edition

Ok, so you basically know everything we did last week via all the Week in the Life posts so I thought it might be nice to have a favorites/retrospective on our first year in spice land via my mom and  brother's shop.  I've polled our family to see what the favorite spices are at the end of the year and paired them with recipes we like to use them in.  I may toss in a few extra just for fun :)

(Note, these are not ranked in order of our favorites, just a list of those that made our overall top ten at our dinner conversation about spices and who picked them.)

1. Black Dust Coffee and Spice Rub - This was one we adopted later in the year at my brother's recommendation.  Here's what we do, we rub it very generously on steaks and grill them.  That's it.  It is amazing.  We've also put it in hamburgers and some other meaty dishes, but really, the best steaks. (Brent & Abbey)

2. Great Plains Bison and Beef Rub - This is probably my most used, most shared, most recommended spice blend of the year.  I add a generous tablespoon per pound of hamburger when I make burgers or sprinkle it on potatoes, cauliflower, or any root vegetable when I roast or boil them.  It goes in meat loaf and anywhere you'd add beef stock. In short I love it.  (Abbey)

3. Organic Ceylon "True" Cinnamon - If #2 is our most used blend, this is definitely our most used individual spice.  B adds it to his morning toast and in huge quantities to apple sauce.  We add 1/2 tsp to many baked goods, and they seem to invent more uses for it all the time -- think popcorn or cheese or ANYTHING. (B & M)

4. Various flavored sugars - Ok, so the kids then listed off about six different kinds of sweetners they love.  I'm going to make them all one category complete with the non-news that my kids love sugar :)  Their favorites at the shop are: Honey Powder, Hilltop Gardens Honey (local thus not online), Pure Maple Sugar, Lavender Vanilla Bean Sugar, Vanilla Bean Sugar, and Organic Sucanat Sugar.  Yes, there are other sugars, but I'm told these are their favorites.  Mostly, these, again, are sprinkled on toast or on top of muffins, but we've also enjoyed the Lavender Vanilla Bean Sugar in brownies (replace 1/3 of the sugar in your favorite recipe -- I like this one). We make fancy drinks with the other sugars, and bake them into cookies.  Honey powder goes in lots of things, but most recently a curry recipe like this one).  (B & M -- ok, me too).

5. El Diente Peak Southwest Seasoning - This remains Brent's favorite.  He routinely puts it on any eggs he may be having and uses it to kick up the spice of dishes we may have made a bit more bland for the kids.  We actually discovered it via this Vanilla & Curry Spice Popcorn recipe that was a shop sample last winter. (Brent)

6. Nacho Cheese Dip -  In fairness, we've never used this to make dip.  We use it to sprinkle on popcorn and sometimes to season things like taco meat or enchiladas.  We also have included it in a lot of gifts as it is so good and totally easy to use. (Abbey & B)

7. Supreme Shallot Salt - This is clearly one of my picks.  It is becoming indispensable to the extent that I take it places with me--- like book club. I typically put it on popcorn, potatoes, eggs, in quiche, on corn on the cob, in vegetable dishes, on pasta.  You get my drift, right?  It was so good in this Beef and Vegetable Stew that we made--- just reading the recipe makes me want to do that again soon. In fairness, I've been using a lot more Fleur de Sel of late, but everything goes in stages and both are so good. (Abbey)

8. Black Canyon Chili Powder - This has been one of my favorites since day one and is still in frequent rotation.  Here is my prior post about how we've been using it.  (Abbey)

9. Park Hill Maple and Spice Pepper - This is lady M's favorite blend. It might help that she can reach it on the spice shelf, but she adds it to everything--- even weird things.  More traditional uses include liberally rubbing it all over a 1-2lb pork loin and roasting at 425 for 40 minutes or so.  She, however, might put it on eggs, popcorn, bread, any vegetable, any meat, ANY FOOD.  (M)

10. Black Onyx Cocoa Powder - We like this mixed in to any chocolate concoction, particularly brownies. This first debuted at E's baptism last September in the brownies we made for ice cream sundaes.  They were so dark that they looked almost burnt, but tasted incredible. It is an intense and delicious flavor. There are some very tasty recipes available here, or just substitute 25-50% of the cocoa in most recipes.  Keep in mind that it has very little fat in it compared to other cocoas so you may want to use a bit more fat or applesauce in the recipe. (Brent)

Honorable mentions included B's fishy favorite Cherry Creek Seafood Seasoning, my beloved Nantucket Rosemary & Citrus Poultry Rub -- which I put in all things that include chicken stock, but also really like in these meatballs;  Brent's also very fond of Baker's Brew Coffee Spice-- and really any blend with coffee in it, this chicken recipe is so good; we all use a lot of Peruvian Chili Lime and I see it as a very all purpose blend for us--- that said, these burgers are amazingly good; and we use Madagascar 2x Pure Vanilla Extract in every baked good we make. Our newer favorites include the Enchilada Seasoning and Memphis BBQ Rub and I'm sure so many more, but I'm going to stop there.  Basically we love it :)

One funny part of this dinner time conversation was B's question that began it all -- Where did we used to by spices before the spice store idea started, Mama?  To me it really reflected how transformative the spice shop has been in our cooking.  We had quite a variety of spices before, but hardly any blends.  We shopped for spices a couple times a year, if that and didn't use all that much.  Now, we use many spices every day and go to the store to replenish our supplies at least monthly.  It is wonderful and I love sharing it with our kids and with you!


(Note: My Mom and Brother own the Savory Spice Shop in OKC and would be glad to help you out with recipe or spice information and supplies.  You can reach them at 405-525-9119, okc@savoryspiceshop.com,  or visit the store at 43rd & Western.  They will also gladly ship products to those out of state).


2 comments:

Debra Dotter Blakley said...

Thanks Abb! You and yours are probably our biggest fans.

Debra Dotter Blakley said...
This comment has been removed by the author.

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