No home kitchen is without its jar of Cajun, Latin, Southwest, blackening, or other exciting spice blend. There are plenty of great ones out there, and if you have a brand you like, you should stick with it. Just make sure that the first ingredient isn’t salt, as that is usually the sign of an inferior product. If you want to go all-out, we like to use (or build upon) this all-purpose blend for many of our Latin or Southwest dishes.
ServingsMakes 156 ml (⅔ cup)
Ingredients
30 ml (2 tablespoons) paprika
30 ml (2 tablespoons) ground cumin
15 ml (1 tablespoon) granulated garlic
15 ml (1 tablespoon) granulated onion
15 ml (1 tablespoon) salt
15 ml (1 tablespoon) freshly ground black pepper
10 ml (2 teaspoons) dried oregano
10 ml (2 teaspoons) dried thyme
10 ml (2 teaspoons) ground chipotle pepper
5 ml (1 teaspoon) cayenne
5 ml (1 teaspoon) ground coriander
1.2 ml (¼ teaspoon) ground cloves
Preparation
Using a spice grinder or clean coffee grinder, pulse the ingredients to make a coarse powder. Transfer to an airtight container and store at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby are the husband-and-wife chefs and owners of Vedge, a modern vegetable restaurant that opened in 2011 to rave reviews from diners and critics alike and V Street, a global street food bar where the vegetables remain the center of the dish. Landau has been at the forefront of vegetarian dining since 1994, when he opened his first restaurant. In 2009, he served the first-ever vegan dinner at the James Beard House. In 2015, he was listed as a finalist for the James Beard award for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic. Jacoby is Vedge’s pastry chef and manages its cocktail and wine program. In 2015, she was listed as a semifinalist for the James Beard award for Best Pastry Chef. They live in their native Philadelphia.