Semiserious Chefs

Pulling together this blend was a bit of a kick in the pants. Saying you have the recipe for berbere (pronounced bur-bur-EE) is about the same as saying you have the recipe for barbecue sauce, or the ras el hanout blend. Every family, mother, grandmother, cousin, region, restaurant, and spice shop has their own concoction. […]

‘Ground Provisions’ was a rather obscure sounding dish when I first came across it. Interestingly it’s a pretty straight forward idea. They are simply ground-based vegetables, AKA roots, tubers, corms, and rhizomes, that are providing the carbohydrates for the meal. These are most often potatoes, sweet potatoes, African/Asian yams, taro, cassava, squash, or plantains, even […]

By technicality bistec asado means ‘grilled steak,’ but to be totally honest this recipe is just a marinade so you can cook your steak however you’d like. In fact, I pan fried this big ‘ole fatty. There is also the fact that Mexican Bistek Paste is ‘steak seasoning,’ yet I’ve seen it used with chicken […]

I recently created a marinade for steak featuring ground annatto, but as a liquid I felt the options might be limiting. This dry rub version can just as easily be used for any kind of meat last minute, but is also great for grilled or steamed vegetables. Additionally, and very specifically, because there is no […]

In our American world of mish-mashing cultures, it is really wonderful whenever I stumble upon a truly authentic l dish. Not too long ago, in my never ending quest to expand my herb and spice collection, I purchased a pinch bag of annatto seeds and began researching the hows and wheres of their common use, […]