The Spice World Is Real!

I am always looking for new ways to use spices.  I love it when I find new spice combinations, and I can play in my kitchen. I want you to get as excited as I do, because  spices are sexy! In my Flirting With Flavors cooking classes, we take flavor combinations to a new level adding a zing of flavor into a dish that you just don’t expect….I call it Flavor Matchmaking… hot, sweet, smoky, spicy… and that is why you will love going to my new favorite spice boutique, La Boîte!! Chef and Spice Master Lior Lev Sercarz has concocted 40 unique spice blends that you won’t find anywhere else and they will definitely add some Flirt to your Flavors!! Experiment. Let me know what you love and what you have found that turns you on. You can create magic in your kitchen.

Mexican Spice

 Chef Aaron Sanchez is someone who can relate to my spice obsession. He wrote a cookbook called Simple Food, Big Flavor, which highlights everything I love about Mexican cooking. One of my favorite recipes in his book is the Garlic-Chipotle Love Sauce. Chef Aaron says that he would “swim in it” if he could.. and I would too!! It is a simple combination of roasted garlic, chipotle, cilantro, and lime (recipe below).

I’ve been eating lots of salmon lately (since I caught it myself on my fishing trip!) and I have made salmon a million different ways. One of my favorites has been to slather it with Chef Aaron’s Garlic-Chipotle Love Sauce but add my own little spin to it.

I made a tangy  sauce to serve with the salmon by combining honey-mustard with the addictive Love Sauce.  Then I threw in some fresh cilantro. Once I roasted the salmon for about 12 minutes and once I grilled it.  The next night I had some leftover salmon, so I combined the Love Sauce with a little Mayo and cayenne pepper and used that as a sauce for salmon tacos!  That’s really cooking with LOVE!!

Come create magic and LOVE with us in our cooking classes.  Click HERE for more info.

 

CHEF AARON SANCHEZ’S GARLIC-CHIPTOLE LOVE SAUCE RECIPE:

Makes 1 cup

1 cup canola oil

12 garlic cloves, peeled

3 tablespoons chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

grated zest of 1 lime

1 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Pour the oil into a heavy ovenproof medium saucepan and add the garlic. Cover the pot with foil, and put it in the oven, and cook until the garlic turns a nutty brown and is really soft (think cream cheese), about 45 minutes.

Remove the pot from the oven and let the garlic and oil cool to room temperature.

Put the garlic and the garlic-infused oil in a food processor or blender. Add the chipotles and sauce, cilantro, lime zest, and salt and puree until the mixture is very smooth.

Store in the fridge in a tightly covered container for up to 2 weeks or freeze for up to a month.