Hibiscus Chile Spice Blend
Kick up steaks and meats with this tangy, smokey, spicy seasoning blend featuring tart hibiscus flowers, pasilla chile, and foraged wild bergamot leaves. Use it as a rub before grilling meat, a seasoning for taco meat, or a starter for simmer sauces.
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.