Dave bought home an amazing chunk of venison steak which needed a spiced salt for a dry rub. I went a bit overboard with how much I made, but it will last, and gave me an excuse to get some more of the venison.

Head straight on to the Recipe For ♥ Spiced Salt ♥
Making spiced salt
I like to grind my spices fresh, which necessitates dry frying the whole spice first. This is important to release the natural oils from the spices, and is known as tempering. I have a dedicated spice grinder which is actually a coffee grinder. The one I have is in the mid price range. Too cheap and it won’t last, or grind fine enough. Too pricey and it’s not worth the expense, and is best left to coffee.
What matches well with coriander seed?
One tends to think of coriander seed or ground coriander as belonging only to savoury dishes, such as pork. But it pairs just as well with apples, blueberries, lemons and oranges. Use a pinch to add zing to your coffee, or make a blend with cardamom and cumin. Anything with garlic matches well with ground coriander, and you can add zest to goats cheese by dusting it with this spice. A natural match is of course fresh coriander, and an unusual match is with olives.
What else goes with cumin?
My favourite way to use ground cumin is to dust it over beetroot, that has olive oil drizzled over it, and a generous sprinkling of salt. These are then roasted for the perfect side dish. You can try the same method with carrots, cauliflower or potatoes. When it comes to fruit, add to baked desserts using apricots, lemons, limes or mangoes. Cumin pairs well with cucumbers, eggs, lamb, oily fish, mint, pork, shellfish and washed-rind cheeses.
Paprika is not just for colour
When I make roast chicken, I always dust the skin with sweet paprika. This adds a lovely colour to the skin. But, paprika also adds flavour. I keep three varieties in my kitchen, the sweet one mentioned above, as well as a smoked paprika. The third one is a hot paprika which adds a lovely taste of chilli pepper to dishes. It is a traditional ingredient for Hungarian goulash, and Spanish chorizo. You can add it to rice to colour it, and to stews and soups for seasoning.
Take a look at this inspiring recipe for ♥ Spiced Salt ♥ from Lavender and Lime #LavenderAndLime Share on X
Click on the links for conversions and notes.
Spiced Salt
Ingredients
- 30 g coarse salt
- 5 g ground coriander
- 5 g ground cumin
- 5 g paprika
Method
- Place the salt into a spice grinder and grind until fine
- Tip into a bowl, add the spices and blend to mix
See the links below for blog posts I published on January 23:
- 2024: Corn Hummus
- 2022: The Bourne Treachery
- 2019: Foodies Of South Africa
- 2017: Pork Ragu
- 2014: Champagne Hollandaise
- 2013: SEO Workshop With Neil Pursey
great flavours Tandy. I do like a spicy salt!
sherry
Thank you so much 🙂
Totally love coriander seeds and use them very often in my baking too. Like you, I prefer to grind my own spices too. Coriander, cumin and paprika are staple spices in my kitchen.
That is nice to know 🙂
Sounds perfect!
Thank you for saying that 🙂
This is a great spice mix
Thank you so much!
I haven’t eaten venison for a long time it’s not readily available here and very expensive. Your kitchen must just smell so aromatic at times I like to use spices as much as I can too. Your spiced salt sounds amazing.
Some of our cattle farmers moved over to kudu do to their cattle being stolen, which has helped the pricing a lot 🙂
Oh how easy! Oh how interesting! Don’t think I have made a salt concoction like this myself?! Love cumin and coriander and use them all the time . . . and was married to a Hungarian loving food and cooking and paprika in 1Kg containers (not joking!) . . . sweet, hot, smoked and, some other variety I have forgotten . . . 🙂 !
I love the genuine Hungarian paprika so you were very spoilt to get that 🙂
Wonderful spices ! Enjoy
Thank you!
Yeah, I love coriander seeds and we sometimes use it to make mouth freshener. How do you add to coffee?
Hi, a good grind is needed, and then just a pinch or two, if you like the taste, you can add more 🙂