One of the best seasonings that I would recommend to anyone the loves southern food with lot’s of flavor is this Blackened Seasoning. It falls right between Cajun Seasoning and Creole, just not as spicy as Cajun or as Salty as Creole but a nice balance of dried herbs with all of the other common ingredients like paprika, onion, garlic and pepper. It goes great on meats like chicken or barbecued pork ribs, it’s amazing on fish and shrimp and I’ve also created some amazing pasta recipes with this seasoning as well. This recipe is what I used for seasoning in my last video recipe, “Ribeye Chicken Fried Steak“, and I promised that I would show you how to make your own today.
My homemade remedy of ingredients to make Blackened Seasoning.
Blackened Seasoning Hacks
If I’m completely honest about my Blackened Seasoning recipe, I don’t make it exactly the way I tell you in the video or in the ingredients below. The ingredients I list down below make a phenomenal seasoning but it’s not exactly what I do. For example, instead of sea salt, which is great, I use Himalayan Salt because my mother in law gave me a ton of it for Christmas. Instead of just using dried Thyme, I use Italian Seasoning which adds 4 more earthy ingredients including Basil. Some folks add Basil to their Blackened Seasoning anyway so why not throw in Rosemary and marjoram, too. It already has the Oregano.
There are a lot of different traditions out there when it comes to making curry. If you read about it, you’ll find that it is more or less complex combinations of spices and/or herbs, usually including fresh or dried hot chilies. Many Asian and Indian cultures have different methods in their preparations as well. There are two ways to make curry; dry or wet curry. This curry recipe that I’m going to be sharing with everyone is preparing a wet curry. Wet curries contain significant amounts of sauce or gravy based on yoghurt, coconut milk, legume purée (dal), or stock. And the easiest way I can show you how to do it is with coconut milk, not to be confused with coconut cream(very important).
Curry Recipe
1 12 oz can coconut milk
2 tbls curry powder
Salt and Pepper to taste
One 12 oz can of coconut milk, 2 tbls of curry is all you’re going to need for the basic curry recipe. Heat a pan on High Heat, add the milk and stir in the curry. As soon as it comes to a complete boil remove it from the heat immediately and then add salt and pepper to taste. Now, this basic sauce can be turned into anything and will set up and get really thick in the refrigerator if you want to save it for other things; cold curry chicken salad for example is one of my favorites. 7 oz of pulled cooked chicken breast to 1 ½ oz of curry dressing and a handful of raisons mixed together and mashed into a snowball sized lump in the middle of your favorite greens makes for an excellent chicken salad. However, using the curry recipe right away for a Masala over rice like what I have demonstrated in the photo is just as easy but will take a few other preparations to kick it up a notch.
Wikipedia says a survey found that of 48 different Tikki Masala recipes, the only common ingredient was chicken; which tells me you can substitute anything you want in the curry recipe and completely make it your own! All I did here is diced up some bell pepper, green onions, pureed a couple of tomatoes in a blender with a clove of garlic and pinch of Cumin, and I was ready to roll. Originally I was going to make the Tikki, meaning chicken, but I remembered that I already had a cooked beef brisket in the refrigerator; so essentially that alone cut my cooked time in half right there.
Here’s how I did it: In a hot skillet a few tbls of canola oil, added the diced green onions and bell pepper and sautéed for just a minute before I added the sliced brisket portion. Now the beauty to doing this yourself people is that you can add as much onion, pepper, beef brisket, chicken, shrimp, WHATEVER as you want. Completely make this dish your own! Now, after you toss all of that together for just a few minutes add and combine your curry and your tomato puree. Add if you happen to have some cilantro, now is a good time to add that too. I know cilantro is one of those things you either love or you hate it. Anyway, just let this reduce just a bit, maybe 10 minutes is all and serve over your favorite rice. Now if you don’t want the Masala and you want to just stick with the curry, NO PROBLEM! Just eliminate the tomato puree and add the garlic to the pan directly instead, it’s just that simple. But don’t stop here, look around and experiment with your own curry recipe and make it your own.
