I’d say you’ve got 20 seconds max, with them moving all the time for Tumeric. 30 seconds for Cumin. About a minute for Coriander. Don’t be afraid to throw away ones where you have burned them, they will ruin a dish.
Some people toast powdered chilli powder but its just burned really quick for me, and hurt my eyes and nasal passages. So I don’t.
Turmeric is a spice I can detect untoasted in curries from its distinctive flavour. I can’t when it’s toasted. I’ve never tasted it in professional curries.
Powdered form is fine, in my opinion, as long as you powder them at home. I am always skeptical that they have adulterated the powders. For example, they add a yellow dye that makes turmeric more yellow. Similarly Kashmiri mirch has added lead salts to make it more reddish.
As a person of Indian origin, I do not trust the spice powder makers and think they cut corners. YMMV
I would like all of Penzeys spices, but I live alone and wouldn’t be able to use them all…I’ve tried every kind of seasoned salt, and Lawry’s is the best…King Arthur Flour catalog has Pizza Seasoning, which is great!
If you want the salted variety, look for Johnny’s Seasoning Salt. It’s a staple in the kitchens of the Northwest. Costco sells the Kirkland branded stuff as Johnny’s branded seasoning in the Seattle area. An aunt of mine worked for the Johnny’s company for many years making their seasonings. They also had 3 popular restaurants in the Tacoma area, they are all closed now.
I suppose you could just shake out a measured amount like a gram or something, and then sort it into red and black pepper particles, and then weigh the resulting piles to get the ratio by weight.
Oh… I forgot, Penzeys “Tuscan Sunset” gets a fair amount of use at our house as our default “italian seasoning” when a recipe calls for that specifically, or we’re in a hurry. It’s pretty good sprinkled over homemade pizza too.
I love a good spice blend and I’ve got a bunch of Penzey’s, many of which have been mentioned before: BBQ 3000, Northwoods, Tuscan Sunset, etc. I just found a new spice store on a visit to Portland, ME: Skordo! I picked up a box set and they are great, particularly the Maine Blueberry pork rub and the Korean BBQ rub.
We used to have that, in that exact container, from a trip to Frankenmuth years ago. It was very good on chicken! Surprisingly MSG-free, too- I actually did an ingredient check, thinking “I bet this is loaded with MSG, it tastes so good”, but no.
Will have to check out Penney’s seasonings after all the mentions in this thread.
We make semi-regular trips to Frankemuth and always stock up on the chicken seasoning. I see it is available from Amazon (pricey) and the Zehnder’s online store.
Nitpick: Penzey’s, not Penney’s. Probably a typo. I’ve bought stuff from there as well, never been disappointed.
I should have added: lately I’ve been paring (or not replacing) some of the premade spice blends I use because the main ingredient is actually just salt.
A local Indian restaurant has branched out into a spice shop, Spicewalla, and we buy our spices from them. We have Garam Masala, Chaat Masala (which I don’t like but haven’t thrown away yet), Pakora Masala (which is freaking delicious tossed with mixed nuts), Chai Masala, and a few different chili powders. Their GM is very clovey, and I use it whenever I make curries. My curries are already nothing like authentic, it’s just me stumbling along to make a spicy tomato-and-spinach-and-protein stew to eat on vegetables, so if that’s inauthentic I’m okay with that.
Other than those, I definitely use Italian Seasoning.
