You can buy ready made mixed spices for anything these days. The market is full of spice mixes for all kinds of dishes. They are great if you are in a hurry and don’t want to have think about which spices to use. I like to experiment though so I tend to get the individual spices and herbs.
When I get to the spice isle I check the labels to see the ingredients in the mixed spices. No, I don’t pull out a pen to take notes but it helps to have a starting point, or to have an idea of what has been put together before you start to experiment.
Two months ago we had a gathering with friends and we decided to do a burrito potluck. So everyone brought something to go towards making the burritos. My part was the tortillas and the spice mix for the meat. There was no burrito meat spice mix at the store so I did a bit of research online and this is what I ended up putting together,…
Ingredients:
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp coriander
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp oregano
This is my favourite custom mix so far. It goes well with beef and chicken. When cooking the meat add a few cloves of crushed or grated garlic. For the burrito meat we used beef, and because it’s meant to be dry we let it cook in it’s own juices with the garlic, the spice mix and a little bit of oil until there was no excess water. We added nothing else and it was delicious. This mix was enough for one kilo of meat. You may need to adjust the salt to your liking though, or leave it out of the mix and add it directly to the meat. You can also adjust the amount of cayenne pepper, depending on how hot you like your food.
I haven’t tried it yet but I think it will work great as a dry rub for skewers at a barbecue as well. And this is the right season to try it! Like today, everyone is chilling at home enjoying the day off, or frantic and making calls looking for a plot! Why not give your family a treat? Or call your friends over for some good barbecue? If you try it ,let me know how it goes (^_^)
What custom mixes have you made that turned out really well?
Happy Jamhuri Day!
