The recipes we’ve posted on this site are born from a great variety of creative processes. Chele and I do not have one singular, methodical approach to how we come up with them. Some recipes are those that we have made many times over the years, refining and perfecting them until we can make the dish from memory. Others are born out of Chele’s need to find gluten-, dairy-, and nightshade-free alternatives for her diet. Some are built around a particular ingredient. Some are twists and tweaks on more familiar dishes. And some, like this one, are mad scientist deals, with ingredients thrown together while we cross our fingers and hope that nothing explodes.
A while back, I was seasoning some shredded chicken to use in some quick tacos. I had a bag of dried pasilla chile peppers left over from another recipe hanging out in my cabinets, so I decided this was a good chance to use some of them up. Rather than reach for a jar of chile powder, I cleaned out my coffee grinder and ground up some of the pasilla. I then rummaged through my spice jars to find the rest of my standard seasoning item. Garlic? Check. Salt? Yes. Cilantro?… Nope, out of cilantro. But I spotted my stash of dried wild bergamot leaves that I’d harvested last summer, so I’d figured I’d give those a try.
I was just about to throw it all in the pan with the chicken to simmer, but on a complete whim I decided to add one more ingredient. While digging through my spices, I’d noticed a bag of dried hibiscus flowers that I’d completely forgotten about hiding in the back. I grabbed a few, threw them in the grinder, and added the resulting powder to the mix. The end result turned what was meant to be a quick weeknight dinner into something quite memorable.
I resolved to play with that flavor combination a bit more, and settled on making a spice rub based on that pasilla, hibiscus, and wild bergamot blend. Chele called me a mad genius for it, which I am pretty sure was a compliment.
Use this as a rub for meats before grilling or roasting, or as taco seasoning like I originally did. This also makes a nice seasoning starter for simmer sauces. I’ve even been enjoying it scrambled into some eggs at breakfast.
One quick note about grilling and roasting meats with this – keep in mind that the hibiscus can turn the juices a deep red, which could be mistaken for things still being bloody and leading you to overcook. But you shouldn’t be depending on color to know when meat is done, anyway. Use a thermometer!
Hibiscus Chile Spice Blend
Equipment
- spice grinder, coffee grinder, or mortar and pestle
Ingredients
- 2 dried pasilla chile peppers
- 1/4 cup dried hibiscus flowers
- 1 Tbs roasted garlic powder
- 2 tsp dried wild bergamot leaves crushed
- ⅛ tsp salt
Instructions
- Remove stems from chiles. Chop pods into small pieces, then grind together with hibiscus and wild bergamot in spice grinder, coffee grinder, or mortar and pestle.
- Combine with roasted garlic powder and salt. Store in an airtight jar or container.
Notes
- Pasilla chile peppers are available dried in Hispanic markets and mainstream supermarkets that stock Mexican seasonings. They are a medium-hot pepper with dark brown skin. If unavailable, other dried chile pepper varieties may be substituted, but the flavor and heat level will vary.
- In some parts of the US, fresh poblano peppers are sold under the name “pasilla”. These are an entirely different pepper and should not be confused with true pasillas (which are rarely ever sold fresh north of Mexico). Even when fresh, true pasilla chiles are brown in color, and are long and narrow in shape – so if your local grocery store is selling broad, flat, green peppers as “pasilla”, know that you are really looking at poblanos. You want dried peppers for this anyway, so leave those green things where they are.
- Dried hibiscus flowers can be purchased at most vendors that sell loose-leaf herbal teas (just make certain you are buying straight hibiscus, and not a blend with other teas and herbs). They are also readily available at most Mexican grocery stores and supermarkets that stock hispanic products under the name jamaica flower.
- Wild bergamot, also called bee balm, is a wildflower in the mint family that grows throughout most of North America. It is unlikely to be found for sale for culinary use, so you will need to forage for it yourself. It blooms in midsummer (starting in mid-July here in the Chicago area). If you are unable to obtain any, you can subsitute 1 tsp of dried oregano in this recipe. For more information on wild bergamot, see our post here.
