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Episode 6: BBQ Challenge Janet and Mike discuss, in depth, the spices and recipes that Janet used on her Food Network show, Spice & Easy. This is where you serious Savory Spicers can get your fill of information that can’t be packed into a 30 minute show. Join us ‘round the table, if you will, to get geeky about spices! |
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Mike: How appropriate that this episode was about barbequing with it being Memorial Day weekend; the unofficial start to barbequing all across the United States.
Janet: Yeah that was perfect. And even though these weren’t traditional American flavors hopefully families will try adding a couple of the recipe to their repertoire.
Mike: That’s been one of the subplots of your show; infusing other ethnic flavors into classic American dishes.
Janet: Well, we definitely added some Asian flair to all of these recipes.
Mike: And the show was packed with recipes. Really three out of the four main recipes had two distinct parts to them. It’s impressive that you can get that much into a show.
Janet: Let’s get to it then!
Mike: Okay. Let’s start with talking a little about how you brined those ribs. We get a lot of questions in the shop about brining.
Janet: I think the questions most people have about brining revolve around salt. Why so much salt is needed and why the salt wouldn’t dry the meat out? Traditionally you use about a cup of kosher salt for each gallon of water. Understandably, this sounds like a lot of salt which is why you’ll often see a matching amount of sugar added to the same brine to assist in fending off the saltiness. But without the proper amount of salt in the brine mixture the meat would not be tenderized. Without getting too scientific, while the meat is in the brine, the salty liquid passes through the cells of the meat, opens them up and allows some of the liquid to be soaked in, thus making the brined meat juicer.
Mike: This is why you added spices to the brine too, so that liquid can add some flavor inside those meat cells as well.
Janet: Correct. One final point on brining is that since the act of brining tenderizes and adds flavor to the inside of the meat, it is important to remember to thoroughly pat dry the meat after removing it from the brine. This will allow it to be cooked properly and remove any access saltiness that the brine could leave on the exterior of the meat.
Mike: Not too scientific at all. Nicely done.
Janet: Thanks. It is a worthwhile step.
Mike: The spices for the brine and the bbq sauce were inspired by Kate Eng’s winning bbq rub, Asian Delight BBQ Rub.
Janet: Yes, she used Chinese Five Spice as the base of her rub, which made it easy for us to breakdown so that people to create the recipe without having to purchase the seasoning.
Mike: The Wasabi Celery Root Slaw was next. What I really like about this slaw is the addition of the apples; I think they are the key to balancing the earthiness of the celery root and the quick fiery heat of the wasabi.
Janet: I agree. What I love about wasabi is that it is a heat that I can handle. The difference between a chile pepper heat and wasabi heat is that even though wasabi can be extremely spicy it doesn’t linger like chile peppers do. You can literally feel the heat leave your nostrils. It lets us heat wimps feel a part of the party a little bit! Although I’m still known to shed a tear or two before the heat leaves.
Mike: We actually have two types of wasabi powder, which by the way can quite easily be made into a paste.
Janet: That’s right. It wasn’t until the a couple years ago that pure wasabi was available in powder form. The pure powder has a distinct earthiness to it, while the Japanese horseradish flavored wasabi powder is actually very similar to the wasabi you’ll taste in restaurants.
Mike: On to the Sweet & Spicy Chile Glazed Shrimp with Pineapple Ginger Salsa. I don’t know if you notice this but the brine, bbq sauce, slaw and now the shrimp all used rice wine vinegar.
Janet: Well that is what we are trying to do on Spice & Easy. We realize that when we are getting into recipes that require folks to go out and pick up an ingredient that they may not have it is important to offer up more than one recipe that uses that item.
Mike: You accomplished that! Red Thai chiles, we use a lot of them at Savory.
Janet: We do because they are critical to some of our most popular ethnic seasonings like Red Thai Curry, Thai Green Curry, Cambodian Lemongrass Curry and our Indochina Seasoning.
Mike: And because they add such a clean, non-bitter heat, we use them in our Shrimp and Crab Boil and our Pickling Spice. What chile would you suggest to use in the shrimp recipe if you don’t have any dried or fresh Thai chiles available?
Janet: For fresh, I would use serranos or jalapenos as they’re available everywhere and you would only need two or three small ones to replace the five red thai chiles. With dried, I use either a chile de arbol or red japones as they are a similar size and heat level. And you can replace them one for one.
Mike: The salsa is very flavorful and like most salsas the flavor is predominately based around fresh ingredients, but we were able to slip a couple spices into the recipe.
Janet: Well, you can’t do an Asian inspired salsa without a little bit of Chinese ginger. And really since this salsa doesn’t have any chiles in it, the powdered ginger and black pepper gives the salsa just enough heat to balance the sweet tartness of the pineapple and lime. I have to say that since we’ve had so many requests for a salsa seasoning maybe we should base our next seasoning contest around that!
Mike: We just might have to do that! Alright, onto the Grilled Spiced Sugar Bananas with Spiced Nuts. Both parts of the recipe used our all-time best selling spice; Saigon cinnamon.
Janet: And if you’ve ever been to any of our shops you’ve probably been given the cinnamon tour. We do that because we carry four different cinnamons, five if you include of organic variety and because cinnamon is the most extreme example of the importance of fresh ground spices. See, cinnamon is just the bark of the cinnamon tree and like other spices the flavor lives in the essential oil. Grinding the spice releases the full flavor, but also starts the evaporation process. Cinnamon has very low oil content, only 1-6%, so its flavor does not last long. This is why we grind our cinnamons weekly, because we know that they will only have strong flavor for 6-9 months.
Mike: Our Saigon is the cinnamon with the 6% oil content so its flavor last the longest and it has a wonderful spiciness to it, almost like “red hots”.
Janet: When people taste Saigon cinnamon it is almost impossible for them to not buy a just a little.
Mike: And we certainly don’t feel bad about selling them a little because we know that when they go home and use it in a recipe, it’s going to make a big difference in the flavor of their favorite recipes!
Janet: That is what all of our freshly ground spice do. But cinnamon in particular should be stored in airtight containers and only purchase in amounts that you will consume in 6-9 months. We don’t want you eat flavorless cinnamon sawdust!
Mike: Well that’s it, your six shows have aired. Do you think Spice & Easy will be back on Food Network?
Janet: At this point we just don’t know whether it is going to be picked up. Spices have always been a bit of a mystery and at this point Spice & Easy is as well.
Mike: Either way, you put yourself out there did a terrific job and I for one am extremely proud of you!
Janet: Thanks Babe. And a special thanks to all of our customers and viewers of the show. It has been fun and I hope to get a chance to do some more.
Mike: Thanks for checking us out we’ll see you round table!
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