An almost ubiquitous garlic pepper spice blend used at a New York inspired, mom and pop, Italian restaurant I once worked at to flavor just about everything that came off the line. Need to season some flour for dredging? Add magic dust. Need a lemon garlic cream sauce? Throw some heavy cream, salted butter, fresh lemon juice, and magic dust in a sauté pan and reduce to desired consistency, adjusting the flavor as you go. This somehow, someway, went into just about everything hot and savory coming out of that kitchen, even dishes that included fresh garlic. About the only other combo that went into almost everything was what we called "green shit," a fresh herb blend of curly leaf parsley and green onions that we prepped fresh for each shift. And, yes, we also used dried parsley.
As for the recipe for magic dust, it was super simple, and we usually made it in one gallon batches, more or less. It was, by volume:
That's it,
easy-peasy. And, this is where I learned to prefer
granulated garlic over
powdered garlic, and coarse ground
black pepper over fine. (Freshly ground black pepper is even tastier, but I digress.) It is this blend, along with a pinch or two of crushed
red pepper, that has influenced my cooking every since.
Herbs and Spices