Mediterranean seasoning
Units
Temperature
Servings
Ingredients
Blend
- 12 g dried oregano rounded
- 10 g dried thyme rounded
- 8 g fennel seed, toasted and lightly cracked, not ground rounded
- 8 g flaky sea salt, the one blend on this site with salt in it, because it doubles as a finishing sprinkle rounded
- 6 g dried rosemary, crushed rounded
- 6 g dried marjoram rounded
- 5 g garlic granules rounded
- 5 g dried lemon zest, completely dry and crumbled rounded
- 4 g sweet paprika, for colour more than flavour rounded
- 3 g coarse black pepper rounded
Method
Method
- Toast the fennel seed in a dry pan over medium heat for about 90 seconds, until it smells sweet and one or two seeds start to jump. Take it off before it colours. Cool completely.
- Crack it coarsely in a mortar. Not to powder: you want to bite the occasional seed.
- Crush the rosemary, then shake everything together and store sealed.
Notes
- This is the one with salt in it, deliberately, because it is the jar you reach for at the table and over roast vegetables on the way out of the oven. If you are cooking with it rather than finishing with it, account for the salt.
- Fennel is what makes it Mediterranean rather than Italian. That sweet aniseed note is the through-line from Provence to Sicily, and it goes particularly well with fish, tomatoes and anything with olives in it.
- Where it earns its place. Roast vegetables, fish before it goes under the grill, focaccia before baking, and stirred into olive oil as a bread dip.
- Keep the grind coarse. A powder loses its character in a week; whole and cracked pieces keep their oils much longer.
Ingredient substitutions
- Fennel seed can be anise seed at two thirds the quantity, which is sweeter and stronger. Dill seed is a different direction but works.
- Flaky sea salt can be any salt, but flakes dissolve on the tongue and are the reason this works as a finishing blend. Fine salt makes it taste simply salty.