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Feel free to singe along!

Time for a little post-holiday-cooking-frenzy clean up, starting with spices. If you’ve ever visited the Home Cookin’ section of my website you’ve seen a photo of my custom made spice rack; there are 136 within easy reach – more if I have the energy to bend over to access the bottom shelf. But with that embarrassment of Rich’s comes the obligation and responsibility to purge the aging members from time to time; dried herbs and spices have a limited shelf life. (It’s one of the reasons I don’t offer recipes – is my powdered cumin the same vintage as yours?)

In addition to single spices, I also keep some commercial and custom spice blends that come in handy if I’m pressed for time. (Read: lazy.) Sometimes, I’ll grab one of those and amplify it with a hit of an ingredient that’s already in there to emphasize it, sometimes I’ll modify it with a spice that’s not present to bring a different character to the mix. Today I did both.

The base was baharat, a Middle Eastern heavenly, warm spice blend; I make my version with ground cumin seed, coriander seed and black pepper plus cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice. Because it was viable but weakening, I adjusted it with additional cumin, coriander, and cardamom and then transformed it with some turmeric for earthiness and color. (Another example of modification: if I had wanted to go Turkish, I would have incorporated mint.)

That would be the dominant seasoning for the beef liver which I had soaked for a few hours in buttermilk and dredged in seasoned flour (garlic powder, salt and pepper). I pan fried it with sliced onions and a liberal dose of toasted, kicked up baharat. The side dish was long grain rice with julienned fresh basil and fennel – seeds as well as fronds.

And if you’re going to singe along, be careful to pay attention when toasting the spice blend.

You’ll never get to heaven with burnt baharat.