Great Island Spice Blend

Great Island Spice Blend ~ a blend of spices you can make yourself to use in all kinds of recipes. Grind it right into some fabulous olive oil for an easy dipping sauce for bread, it’s an quick and oh so delicious appetizer.

Although we live in an area known for good food and restaurants, we technically only have two restaurants on the island. Both are at the gorgeous and historic Wentworth by the Sea resort. We waited all winter for the more casual of the two to re-open for the season. Once it did, we’ve made a point to visit often, even if only for a drink. It sits dockside, overlooking the Atlantic.
They serve incredible homemade potato and olive bread. They pour olive oil on your plate and then grind a special spice mix onto the oil. It’s heavenly. We all commented on it, and right away we knew we had to try and make our own.

Normally I don’t go for the bread dipped in olive oil thing. It’s usually a little bland, and I figure it’s got a lot of calories for very little payback. The only exceptions are if the olive oil or the bread is spectacular, something extra is done with the oil, or you’re absolutely starving. In this case it was all three.

It always pays to try and ask about recipes when a restaurant serves something you love. Even if they don’t give you an actual recipe, many times you can garner enough details to help you recreate it at home. This time our waitress was so sweet, she ran right back to the kitchen ad brought us the spice blend, written on a  kitchen check. As you can see, it’s simple:

AND COARSE SEA SALT

I  had most of these herbs and spices in my cupboard. I decided to use an old salt grinder that I haven’t been using. My only other challenge was figuring out the proportions of the spices. I decided to start with equal amounts.

I measured out a tablespoon of each of the spices. I couldn’t find red peppercorns, so I used a blend. I put the spices into a bowl and mixed them together. From the look of it, it seemed to need more salt and pepper, so I added another tablespoon of peppercorns and 1/2 tablespoon of salt.

I spooned it into the grinder, and voila! It looks and tastes like the spice blend we had at the restaurant. It’s a little salty, but I like that. If you’re trying to cut down on sodium you could leave the salt out, or use less.

Set your grinder to the coarsest setting.

Get some great bread.

I chose a rustic olive loaf and cut it into pieces like they did at the restaurant.

Pour a good quality fruity olive oil onto a plate and grind the Great Island Spice Blend liberally right over the top.
Be sure to give everyone their own little plate of oil to encourage double dipping!

Great Island Spice Blend

5 from 4 votes

A quick and easy spice blend that you can customize to your own taste.

Print Recipe Rate Recipe

Prep Time:5 minutes minutes

Total Time:5 minutes minutes

Ingredients

 

• 1 Tbsp red or pink peppercorns
• 2 Tbsp black peppercorns
• 1 Tbsp dried thyme
• 1 Tbsp dried rosemary
• 1 Tbsp whole fennel seed
• 1 Tbsp whole coriander
• 1 to 1 and 1/2 Tbsp coarse sea salt, according to your taste

Instructions

• Mix all the spices together and fill a clean spice or pepper grinder. Grind as needed.

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Course: condiment, spice

Cuisine: American

Author: Sue Moran

Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators.  Although The View from Great Island attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.

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Notes:

• If you’re trying to cut down on salt, leave it out, you’ll have a wonderful no-salt spice blend for everything from scrambled eggs to steak!