My First Challenge (Part II)

So I decided to try and tackle my challenge today with a couple of dishes.  We had planned on spending the day at the pool with a few people over so I thought this was a good opportunity to make something worthwhile.

The first dish I made was a slow cooker pot of chili.  I got the recipe online a few years ago and really enjoy the flavor.  In relation to my challenge, I was able to knock Cumin off the list.  I love the taste of this chili but I do find that I need to double the amount of cayenne and add about 3/4 Cup of cornstarch slurry to thicken the concoction. 

The second dish was not really a dish but a dry rub mix that I used on some ribeyes to grill.  I found this rub on the blog Serious Eats and found it to be a very nice change from the usual salt, pepper, and garlic that I usually do for steaks.  Besides that, it allowed me to knock off Cumin and Ground Mustard off my list.

Admittedly, this would probably be more suited for ribs, but didn't taste out of place on a grilled ribeye with the paprika adding a nice depth to the meat.

The only change I would have made was in the application.  Since this was a new rub, I was not as liberal as I should have been.  If I had to do it over, I would have really packed it on and the resulting crust would have been magnificent.  Ah well, maybe next time when I do a pork chop.

So after this challenge the list of spices read as follows:

1. Cardamom
2. All Spice
3. Cloves
4. Almond Extract
5. Pumpkin Spice
6. Garam Masala
7. Vanilla Beans
8. Saffron
9. Nutmeg
10. Ground Mustard
11. Tumeric
12. Coriander
13. Sage
14. Thyme
15. Celery Seed
16. Tarragon
17. Cumin

Two down, fifteen more to go.

Thanks for reading.