When you cook, buying spices can really get expensive. It’s especially frustrating when you purchase a specialty spice for a dish and can’t find other recipes in which to use it up. To keep your cupboards from overflowing with bottles, here is my list of top five ingredients you’ll be happy you have on hand.

1.  Salt

Salt is the staple seasoning. It enhances the flavor of meats, sauces, vegetables and just about everything else. Plus you use it both in cooking and baking so it serves double duty.

2.  Black Pepper

Black pepper is almost as universal as salt. It adds zing without being overpowering and can be added to almost any dish to keep it from being bland.

3.  Pumpkin Pie Spice

Pumpkin pie spice is a great option to replace nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves in recipes and gain space in your spice rack. Using pumpkin pie spice instead of a single seasoning like cinnamon or nutmeg also helps add complexity to your dish. It’s great for baking, but I’ve also been known to use pumpkin pie spice to enhance vegetables like sweet potatoes from time to time.

4.  Italian Seasoning Blend

Italian seasoning is a blend of spices, like basil and oregano, which are often used in traditional Italian dishes. In addition to condensing several spice bottles into one, it’s great because it’s incredibly versatile. Use it as a meat rub before grilling or to season your spaghetti sauce.

5.  Cajun Seasoning Blend

Cajun seasoning blend is a mixture of traditional Cajun spices and can be used as a replacement in recipes for cayenne pepper, red pepper, and the like–reducing the number of containers in your pantry. It works well on fish and other seafood, but go easy at first, some people aren’t ready for the intensity these spices can bring.

Choosing the best and freshest seafood.

I already covered how to pick the best produce and beef. Now let’s talk seafood.

Good news: High quality, fresh seafood is more readily available than ever. Bad news: Picking seafood can be intimidating. You want to make sure you’re buying the freshest seafood you can. Here to help.

Funny thing about the word “fresh” – it has a different meaning when it comes to seafood. I’m going to pull back the curtain and tell you exactly what to consider when selecting “fresh” seafood.

1.     To buy fresh, buy frozen.

It may be counter intuitive, but if you want the freshest fish available, buy fish that has been flash-frozen. Today, fish can be flash-frozen shortly after being caught. This lessens spoilage, keeps things fresher and makes the fish safer to eat. Unless you live in a harbor town, the flash-frozen fish will be the most fresh. More insight found here.

2.     If something smells fishy, it is.

Fresh seafood should not have a strong fish smell.  If it smells like the docks, throw it back.

3.     Coming out of our shells.

Fresh shellfish like crab or lobster should be bought alive for optimum freshness. If the shells of the fish are open they are no longer living.

4.     Some like it raw.

Sashimi must be frozen for at least 7 days to be certified to eat raw. Brings us full-circle to point #1.

Now go out and use your newfound seafood selection skills and go score some Steelhead Trout (or Salmon) to test the Asian Infused Steelhead Trout recipe I tossed out several weeks back.

Soon, I’ll follow up on this “fresh ingredient” series with unique preparation tips and even more recipes from the MCL Restaurant & Bakery test kitchen.

Good times to follow.

Best,

Chef

Picking the best steak at the grocery store.

Second rule of cooking: use the best quality, freshest ingredients available to you.

Click here if you need a refresher on the first rule of cooking.

Hunting down the best, tastiest, and freshest ingredients makes up about 60% of my job as an executive chef at MCL. Tough and flavorful work, but someone’s got to do it. Our customers reap the real benefits of my painstaking labor.

So we covered how to select fresh produce. Now we’ll take a look at how one should go about finding a great slab of beef.

• Firm is good. Good beef is firm to the touch with a slight spring-back effect when you remove your finger. If your finger indentation stays after you pull your finger away, you should walk away. The longer meat sits, the more moister it looses. Doctors even use the same test to tell if patients are dehydrated. Same basic principal applies with most meat, poultry and fish.

• Good, fresh beef is red. Packaging should be wrapped tightly. Near airtight. Any brown discoloration is a telltale sign the meat has been breathing a little too much air. Air is bad.

• Always read your label. Not only to see when the meat was packaged but to be on the lookout for meat treated with carbon monoxide gas. Gas mixtures are used to help the meat retain the red coloration until you remove it from the packaging. Sneaky.

• Look for USDA grade beef. It’s your best bet.

Here’s a breakout of meat grades from highest to lowest quality:

- Prime: Highest quality. Is harder to find and is priced accordingly. Only about 2.9% make the grade.

- Choice: High quality. More available in restaurants and markets.

- Select: Still good. Just won’t be as juicy or tender.

Click here to learn more about USDA grading.

How to choose a cut of meat:

Different cuts will carry varying levels of fat and tenderness. Higher quality cuts will be most tender. Example: Filet Mignon is the pinnacle of tenderness, and subsequently, price. But, hey, maybe you like to chew on the firmer texture of a New York Strip or the fattiness of a good Rib Eye. Meat cut choices are very personal.

So whether it’s Filet, Chuck, Sirloin, Flank, or Rib – the world is your oyster. Well, you know what I mean.

Best,

Chef

Picking the best and freshest produce – demystified.

First rule of cooking: use the best quality, freshest ingredients available to you. Simple rule really. A dish can only be as tasty as the ingredients used to prepare it.

Subtlety is a chef’s greatest tool. Many of my favorite dishes consist of mixing flavorful, fresh ingredients together and doing little else to them.

Mouths beginning to water. Pushing forward.

The above mentioned first rule of cooking is especially true when selecting fresh produce. Here are a few secrets from the MCL Restaurant & Bakery test kitchen to help you ensure you’re getting the good stuff.

• Organic is good, but local is better.  Fruits and vegetables lose nutrients the longer they sit after harvest.  Local produce has less distance to travel thus retaining more of its nutritional value, and flavor.

• Eat whatever is in season. It’ll be the most flavorful.

• Choose fruits and vegetables that snap when broken.  If a green bean bends it is no good.

• To tell if a melon is sweet, hold it right up to your nose and smell it.  Ignore the odd stares from other customers. If it smells sweet it’ll taste sweet too.  Sweet is good.

• Don’t store tomatoes in the fridge.  It stops the ripening process and makes them lose their flavor.

If you have specific questions, shoot me an email. I’ll be happy to point you in the right direction.

Now I’m off to prepare some tasty goodness concocted from in-season, locally grown fresh produce. Encouraging you to do the same.

Best,

Chef