Caribbean
Ancho Chili Beef Empanadas
Who doesn’t love food that you can hold in your hand? The beauty of empanadas is that the rich, buttery dough can be filled with almost anything - sweet or savory. Our Ancho Chili Powder is mild-medium in heat and adds magnificent depth to the beef and vegetable filling we chose. Ancho chiles have a wonderful, darkly sweet flavor, so we added a little Alderwood Smoked Salt for just a touch of smoky contrast. They can be served either hot or at room temperature; we like ours with salsa, sour cream and a Hibiscus Margarita. They freeze well, so make a bunch and plan to enjoy them another day, or surprise yourself at how quickly your guests devour the extras.
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Ingredients
Instructions
- Sift flour into a large bowl. Add salt and chilled, cubed butter. Using your fingertips or a pastry cutter, mix together until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
- In a separate bowl, beat together eggs, chilled water and vinegar and add to flour mixture.Combine until well incorporated.
- Empty onto a lightly floured surface and knead just enough to bring the dough together. Cut dough in half and form each half into a rectangle. Chill for at least 1 hour.
- In a heavy skillet heat olive oil over medium heat.
- Add onions, red bell peppers and garlic and saute until softened. Add Alderwood Smoked Salt, Ancho Chili Powder and Mexican Oregano, and saute for about 1 minute.
- Add ground beef, breaking up any lumps and cook until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Add olives and mix well. Taste for seasoning, adjust as needed. Pour into a bowl and refrigerate until chilled.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Remove chilled dough from the refrigerator. Cut each rectangle into 12 pieces. Form into discs and cover with a towel.
- On a lightly floured surface, take one of the pieces and roll it out into a circle (about 1/8 inch thick). Holding the circle in the palm of your hand, place 2 heaping teaspoons of the chilled filling in the center.
- Fold the two edges of the circle together over the filling. Press the edges to seal. Using a fork dipped in flour, crimp the edges so the filling won't escape.
- Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat the process with the remaining dough and filling. Lightly brush the empanadas with egg wash.
- Bake until golden, about 25 minutes. They are done if they sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
- Transfer to a wire rack and cool for at least 5 minutes.
- Serve with salsa and sour cream.
Poudre de Colombo Carrot Soup
A word of advice from a novice gardener: Carrots are much bigger than carrot seeds. Somehow, fifty-odd square feet of garden space doesn’t seem like that much when it’s being planted, but it can produce a surprising haul, most especially in the carrot department. Praise be that carrots are delicious, so their being excessively plentiful is a problem I’m thankful to have! This soup is hearty and delicious, made velvety by the soft puree of carrots, and from the toasted rice in the Poudre de Colombo curry. We’ve dressed it up a little with the prawns, but this soup can easily be made vegan by omitting them, and using red miso paste in favor of the Worcestershire powder. If you’re short on time, or you perhaps planned your garden space better than I did, and therefore the creative utilization of carrots is not a pressing issue for you, a can of pumpkin puree is an excellent substitution.
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Ingredients
Instructions
- Heat oil, and sauté onions, garlic, ginger, and carrots for five minutes
- Deglaze with wine, and reduce until pan is nearly dry
- Add stock, bay leaf, and 1 tablespoon of the curry, cover, and simmer until carrots are very tender, about 15 minutes.
- Remove bay leaf. In a food processer or blender, puree soup until smooth. Work in small batches for best- and safest- results, adding in the coconut milk to aid in the blending.
- Strain the processed soup through a wire mesh strainer in to a clean pot, and return the mixture to the stove over low heat.
- Add the remaining coconut milk, Worcestershire powder, sugar, and curry, 1 tablespoon at a time, until desired seasoning level is reached.
- Add lime juice, and adjust for salt.
- Rub prawns with paprika and cayenne, and grill or sear them.
- Ladle soup in to bowls, and garnish each with two prawns, a wedge of lime, and a few leaves of cilantro.
Caribbean Spice Grilled Salsa
Fresh pineapple tastes of a wild summer, its tropical sweetness tempered by raucous acidity. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to find a ripe one and some folks can be overwhelmed by the tartness. My favorite way to tame pineapple is to cook it slowly until the pale yellow becomes a rich gold and the sugars take center stage, as in this grilled salsa. Make sure to place your pineapple slices away from the hottest parts of the grill; caramelized pineapple requires time (20-30 minutes) and indirect heat. Our Caribbean Spice, with the richness of allspice berries, is the perfect blend for this salsa. A bit of extra cumin adds an intense savory note that’s perfect for grilling. While I broke everything down in a food processor for the smoother texture and ease of preparation, fans of chunky salsa can chop everything together by hand. The smoky flavor from the grill counterpoints the sweetness of the pineapple and tomato perfectly, leaving you with a well balanced and delicious side for tortilla or plantain chips, chicken, and fish.
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Ingredients
Instructions
- Lightly oil the pineapple, tomato and onion, so that they won't stick to the hot grill (or grill pan). Place on the grill and cook on both sides, until almost done. (You mostly want to get good grill marks on them - that's flavor! You can also grill your citrus, too. It will make them easier to juice, and give you a little more flavor, but you might want to let them cool before you juice them.) After you take them off the grill, cut them into smaller pieces for the food processor.
- In a food processor, add the garlic and ginger and process. (This will just break them down a little bit.) Now put in the rest of the ingredients the food processor and puree. Taste for seasoning - you might want to add more salt, lime juice or Caribbean Spice, depending on your taste. Depending on how sweet your fruit is, you might want to add more honey, too.
- This is a great topping for grilled meats or fish, but is also just as good with chips.
Jerk Chicken
Summer means grilling, and we at World Spice think there is nothing quite like the smell of Jerk Chicken cooking on the grill! Whether you use our Jerk Rub in a marinade or just sprinkled (liberally!) on the chicken, the aroma as it grills will have your stomach growling and your mouth watering….
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Ingredients
Instructions
- Put the chicken, cut up or whole, into a large, heavy-duty gallon Ziploc bag. Mix together all of the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. Pour over the chicken and seal the bag. Make sure that all of the chicken is coated in the marinade. Refrigerate overnight. Grill over indirect heat until the juices run clear when you poke the chicken with a sharp knife.
- If you forgot to marinate the chicken overnight, but just can't wait to eat some grilled Jerk Chicken, you can use the Jerk Rub as a dry rub. Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of Jerk Rub over both sides of the chicken. Now lightly sprinkle salt on both sides of the chicken. Grill...and enjoy!
