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- Welcome to Smarter Seasoning,
session two of basic training.
I am Jack Bishop and I wanna be your kitchen coach.
I'm gonna teach you ways to make your food taste better.
We're gonna start by talking salt and pepper.
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So salt comes from two different sources.
The sea as well as underground mines,
actually evaporated seas that long ago, covered the Earth.
Probably what's more important is
how we think about salt in terms of texture.
It can be really fine like table salt,
which often has some anti-caking agents added so it pours.
Or can be coarser like kosher salt
or a lot of sea salts are really very coarse.
And this really matters because when you
think about cooking versus finishing,
so if you're cooking with salt,
use the cheapest thing you have,
it's gonna dissolve, they all taste the same.
But when you're finishing food at the table,
coarse salt, especially really flaky salt
like this sea salt from England, Maldon,
which has got these really flaky crystals is really lovely.
The other thing about texture is
that it impacts household measures.
So really fine table salt packs down into a teaspoon
and you end up getting twice as much salt in that teaspoon
as if you're using a course kosher salt.
So remember, coarse salts, good salts,
save them for the table.
You can, just for regular cooking,
either stick with kosher salt or with table salt.
Now I'm gonna show you something.
You often see chefs on cooking shows.
They're holding their hands really up high
when they are seasoning.
So I'm gonna show you what happens when you go real low
and you season kind of right on top of the food, all right?
And now I'm gonna go up high and season the same food.
So what you see here is I over-salted here, right?
Over-salted here when my hand was really low
as opposed to it's a lot more even when my hand is up high.
So when you're seasoning food,
keep your hand 12 inches above the counter, okay.
Salt's partner in the kitchen, pepper.
So white pepper, black pepper, green pepper,
all come from the same tropical plant.
They're little dried berries.
Sichuan peppercorns, pink peppercorns,
different family, different plants, despite the name.
Black pepper is what we use in the kitchen.
Probably the most important thing to know is
don't obsess about different varieties.
Yes, there's some differences
between Tellicherry and Malabar.
The most important thing is never,
ever, ever buy ground pepper.
It has heat and nothing else.
You get no orange notes, pine notes, menthol notes,
all the delicious things about black pepper,
so you have to buy whole peppercorns
and grind them yourself,
which means you need a pepper mill like this one.
This is the Test Kitchen's favorite, it's by Cole & Mason.
A couple of things that make this unique.
First thing is it's very easy to fill.
You see, you take the lid off and it's got a nice big hole
for adding, you don't even need a funnel for this.
Second thing we like about this is,
you know when you're running out,
"Hmm, I think I'm running low."
Last thing is it has a really wide range of grinds
so you can get really coarse and really fine.
Now if you have a pepper mill already
and it doesn't do really course,
I've got a quick tip for you.
So you can put the peppercorns here on a cutting board
and use a heavy pot or pan, even a rolling pin,
and basically (crunching) kind of lean into it.
And if you wanna do cracked pepper...
(cracking) Ooh, (laughing) but that's, that's a good one.
You wanna do cracked pepper,
you might wanna put it in a plastic bag
or you might want to use a little less energy.
So salt and pepper, next up, spices.
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When it comes to seasoning, nothing is more fun than spices.
So what is a spice?
It is any dried part of a plant that we use to flavor foods.
So it can be rose pedals, it can be berries or flowers.
It can be seeds, cumin seeds.
It could be bark like cinnamon.
It could be a root like ginger or turmeric.
So it's basically anything that's dried.
So probably most important thing is
to make sure your spices are pretty fresh.
Two years is a good sort of shelf life,
life expectancy of your spices.
My colleagues in the Test Kitchen,
often we'll label them with the date when they opened them.
I don't do that, I rely on two simple tests.
We've got the sniff test, so I've got ground ginger here.
(sniffing) Yeah, that smells like ginger,
and it's got all of those notes that I come to expect,
so that is a pretty good indication it's gonna be good.
I have some oregano here,
which looks kind of at the bottom of the barrel here.
(sniffing)
Let's say it's not the most amazing aroma.
I can do the crumble test and so,
take a small bit, crumble it.
(sniffing)
It's a little better, but honestly not great.
I would say this oregano, it is time for some fresh oregano.
Most important thing about storage,
spices do not like heat and light.
So that little rack you have next to your window,
next to your stove, bad idea.
Keep them in the pantry,
freezer if you're gonna buy large amounts,
but actually the cool pantry is fine.
So whole versus ground.
I mostly use ground, but if I'm gonna use whole spices,
you've got to toast them.
So do that in a dry skillet, no fat.
You can do it in the oven,
but it's more likely it's gonna run away from you.
I like to do it on top of the stove
so I can really see it and smell it.
So you just smell the spices, they're toasted, they're done.
Take them out of that hot pan 'cause they may continue
to toast if you leave them in there.
One of the most important things about whole spices is
you're going to need to grind them.
So I've got my trusty old grinder.
This is actually just a blade grinder
that you would use for coffee,
but I don't use it for coffee.
It's dedicated to spices.
I've wiped it out over the years with paper towels,
raw rice in there if it gets really dirty
and just process the raw rice to clean it.
And it's really essential for, obviously,
if you're going to use whole spices and grind them yourself.
So you toast them, cool,
and then put them in the spice mill.
You're gonna be using this kind of like a martini,
you know, cocktail shaker, up and down.
Whether you are toasting them or not,
I find one of the secrets of cooking with all spices
when they're ground is to make sure they spend
a little bit of time blooming in the fat in the dish.
So if you're making chili,
you cook the onions and the garlic in some oil,
then add the spices.
Let that cook for a minute before you add the liquid.
Because a lot of the compounds that make spices
so delicious are fat soluble.
And so letting them spend some time
directly in contact with the oil will make sure
that those flavors permeate the dish.
I'm gonna end by teaching you how to make
my favorite finishing spice blend, pistachio dukkah.
So you know, we think of spices as stuff we cook with,
but we can use them at the table.
Zaatar is another Mediterranean spice blend.
It's Sesame seeds, sumac and thyme.
Dukkha is related, also starts with sesame seeds.
I've got one and a 1/2 tablespoons, I've toasted these.
I'm gonna put them in my spice mill.
I'm gonna just quickly give them a blast.
(grinding)
All right, put those into a bowl.
Dukkha is really great over bean dishes, soups.
I love to put it on a plate of olive oil for bread.
So that's my sesame seeds, I've now got...
I've already toasted these.
I've got coriander, fennel, and cumin
that are going in here.
That was one and 1/2 teaspoons of coriander,
3/4 of cumin, and 1/2 of fennel.
(grinding)
I think they're done, let's see, get this into the bowl.
(smacking)
All right, oh, that smells so good.
And last but not least, I've got two tablespoons
of toasted and chopped pistachios.
Along with a 1/2 teaspoon of each of salt and pepper.
Mix that up and now I've got
a nut spice blend that I can use,
that you can put this in the fridge for a month
and it will stay good, and as I say,
putting this over anything makes it more delicious.
Spices, the key to smarter seasoning.
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Herbs are another good way to season your food.
If you're using fresh herbs,
you're definitely gonna be using them at the end,
so they not only make the food taste better,
make it look nice.
Dried herbs, honestly other than oregano and rosemary,
I find that most dried herbs don't have much flavor.
Those are okay as long as you add them
early in the cooking process,
so they spend a lot of time in the liquid,
and have time to sort of soften,
and permeate the dish with their flavor.
It's probably best to think about two categories of herbs,
delicate herbs and hardy herbs.
And the reason why this matters is
because within those two categories,
you can substitute one for the other.
And so therefore you can use what's growing in your garden
or what looks good at the supermarket.
So delicate herbs have a milder flavor
and they have softer leaves and stalks and sprigs.
So mint, basil, parsley, cilantro, chives, all delicate.
The hardy ones, oregano, thyme, rosemary,
not only are much more potent,
they have more woodsy sprigs and stocks.
So it's also really important
because you're gonna see a lot of recipes
that may call for a 1/4 cup of basil.
You would never wanna use a 1/4 cup of rosemary.
So, but if the basil doesn't look good,
you can use another delicate herb.
Let's say a 1/4 cup of cilantro or a 1/4 cup of parsley.
Probably the most important thing about herbs
happens when you get home.
Can I just tell you, I hate the misters that they have
in most supermarkets spraying those herbs
so they look like they're fresh.
The problem is that it encourages rot.
So these herbs, this is some parsley,
I must've gotten this three or four days ago.
I purposely left these ties on.
And what happens is this causes all kinds of rot.
And you know, if you leave them in here all wet,
you come back in a couple of days and you basically have
slimy, disgusting herbs you can't use.
So as soon as you get home, get rid of the ties,
get rid of the rubber bands.
Put the herbs in a spinner, wash and dry them,
and then store them in a rolled up paper towel
put inside a Ziploc.
So this cilantro is two weeks old, yeah, two weeks old.
Take a look at it.
It still looks really good because I separated it
so that would discourage the rot,
and I got rid of the excess moisture.
A pro tip, cilantro stems.
You don't even need to take the leaves off.
These are really delicate and you can chop the stems.
Don't do that with parsley,
but you can do that with cilantro.
Herbs make things taste better and look better.
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Why not save time and use a flavor powerhouse
to build amazing dishes with less effort?
Got four of my favorites here.
First up, tomato paste.
So I love this because it's sweet, it's sour,
and it's a super great source of umami,
that thing that makes tomatoes
give them that meaty, savory flavor.
Because it's got very little liquid,
it's got a concentrated flavor, so it's big flavor.
And basically anything with tomatoes,
put a little bit of tomato paste in, it tastes better.
Soy sauce, why add salt when you can add salt and umami?
Use this in everything from French onion soup,
to meatballs, to beef stew.
Same thing with fish sauce.
You get umami, as well as salt.
Seafood chowders.
It's great in a Creole-style gumbo.
Finally, I love spicy food.
But why add chilies when you can add Chipotle chilies,
that have from the tomatoes that umami?
They've got some sweetness.
They've got some acidity.
Really easy ways to make things more delicious.
Finally, finish strong.
So that usually means a drizzle of olive oil.
A little bit of fat makes things better,
as well as some acidity.
Most bland food would be so much better
with a squirt of lemon juice
or a drizzle a really nice vinegar.
So finish strong.
Now you've got the tools to season with confidence.
I want you to go out there and start cooking.
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