Aside from Roman Numerals being antiqued, although not quite obsolete, I didn’t want anyone to think it was Gyros Eleven.
I bought a pound of lamburger at the Farmers’ Market, today. When I explained that I liked their gyro meat, but wanted it a bit more spicy, I was told that they also sold the seasoning. I was wished luck with my experimentation.
My first attempt will be the first (not-sponsored) search result: Goodness Avenue.
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon dried parsley
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried thyme
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 ½ teaspoons lemon pepper
½ teaspoon black pepper
It doesn’t say how much to put into how much lamb, but we’ll see what happens.
I have parsley, oregano, and thyme growing on my window sill, so I’ll use fresh. I think the only coriander I have is some cilantro seeds in a “plant me”, not “eat me”, packet; I guess I should plant them and buy something for this. I have cumin – and I have no idea what is, so nothing fresh planned. I don’t have any cayenne peppers (living or dead), but I do have some dried Thai peppers from last year. My lemon pepper should probably be thrown out due to age. I do have lemon juice (almost everything baking related requires it).
The first, un-numbered, post is here. I still have some the tzatziki sauce left, so that experiment will be independent. Yes, that surprises me as much as it does you.
Yeah, Intertubes! Although Wikipedia can be a bit much.
Cumin is the dried seed of the herb Cuminum cyminum, a member of the parsley family. The cumin plant grows to 30–50 cm (12–20 in) tall and is harvested by hand. It is an annual herbaceous plant, with a slender, glabrous, branched stem that is 20–30 cm (8–12 in) tall and has a diameter of 3–5 cm (1+1⁄4–2 in). Each branch has two to three sub-branches. All the branches attain the same height, so the plant has a uniform canopy. The stem is colored grey or dark green. The leaves are 5–10 cm (2–4 in) long, pinnate or bipinnate, with thread-like leaflets. The flowers are small, white or pink, and borne in umbels. Each umbel has five to seven umbellets. The fruit is a lateral fusiform or ovoid achene 4–5 mm (1⁄6–1⁄5 in) long, containing two mericarps with a single seed. Cumin seeds have eight ridges with oil canals. They resemble caraway seeds, being oblong in shape, longitudinally ridged, and yellow-brown in color, like other members of the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) such as caraway, parsley, and dill.
I refuse to follow the glabrous, pinnate, bipinnate, umbels, or achene links. I have no idea what those things are, but at the moment, I have no desire to find out.
The important question is: Where can I get the seeds?
The Intertubes for the win, again! The second result was Territorial Seeds, which I’ve bought from in the past. The experience was nominal: I sent them money, they sent me seeds, the seeds grew into plants. That’s about as much as one can expect of a seed company.
1 gram (the seeds must be small; the packaging probably weighs more) is only $3.55. Is that really worth the overhead of ordering? Maybe paprika?
Paprika is like cinnamon: bark. I think. Nope. It’s dried and powered bell peppers. That’s really weird because I hate bell peppers, but paprika is great. Ugh. Wikipedia! Bell peppers are a new-world plant. Paprika is as Hungarian as tomatoes are Italian.
I suppose I can try. That’s another $5.45.
My cilantro seeds are very, very old (probably ten years), so why not? Oh, sure; there are five different kinds of it. The Marino variety has the most little pictographs under it. Not being able to read those little pictographs – and I refuse to learn; we have letters and words for a reason – I’m going American: More is better. That’s another $3.95.
As long as I’m getting Bell peppers, might as well get Cayenne, too. I think it’s too late for peppers, but we’ll see. They have a 65 day variety. That should work, but it’s out of stock. The other is 85 days, which probably will not work. However, the smallest packet is 25 seeds. That will leave me some for next year. Another $5.95. That’s enough that I don’t feel stupid placing the order.
This is not quite as stupid as it seems. I use all these spices for other things and not only is fresh much better than dried, but grocery store spices are crazy-expensive. Even if I only get one cayenne pepper plant that bears, that pays for this entire order. I do think the paprika experiment is doomed, but one doesn’t know until one tries.
As I expected: $8.95 for shipping. At least it is less than the order, itself. Ordered. $29.59.
No, this wasn’t planned. I did that live.
Marked Up 