AROMATICA ORGANICS is America's first organic spice company which began sourcing and selling spices from around the world in 1997.  They work closely with organic farmers from 50 countries, offering more than 100 different organic spices, fresh dehydrated herbs, specialty mushrooms, exotic chilies, dried beans, nuts and rice.

About Aromatica Organics Seasoning Blends

I'm not very often stumped about what to cook for dinner, although occasionally I need the stimulus of a favorite food store to inspire me. On one of these indecisive days, I went to Whole Foods Market at Union Square in NYC - roaming the aisles of the store for any product to catch my eye and solve my dilemma of what to cook for dinner...I hadn't even decided on whether the protein would be meat or fish or fowl....and then I came upon a table of shiny round containers of seasoning mixes. 

I noticed that the display was an organic brand of seasonings and my eyes first landed upon one of the containers with the label "Southern Fried Chicken" and I instantly knew what I would cook for dinner!  Fried chicken (organic of course), and the accompaniments of a mixed herb salad and organic French fries immediately came to mind as I had all of those ingredients at home. 

The ingredients in the Southern Fried Chicken seasoning mix and the entire line are all organic so I won't repeat the word "organic" for each ingredient:  sea salt, garlic, onion, black pepper, herbs, spices, red pepper, red bell pepper, green bell pepper.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take photographs of the fried chicken, salad and French fries but I'm sure you can imagine it!  Delicious doesn't say enough about how good the chicken tasted - I simply soaked the chicken in buttermilk, then I added a good amount of the Aromatica Organics Southern Fried Chicken seasoning mix to a blend of white whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour in a plastic zip-lock gallon size bag. Then I coated the chicken in the flour/seasoning one or two pieces at a time and set each coated piece aside on a rack.

The oil for deep frying chicken should be at least 360°F before adding the coated chicken - I used an electric deep fryer with a built in thermometer so I knew the temperature of the oil would be as accurate as it can be.  Remember that when deep frying, after removing the first batch of fried foods from the oil, you need to bring the oil back to the proper temperature before adding more food to be fried.

I also used the Southern Fried Chicken seasoning on chicken strips that you see in the photos below - I had some of the flour/seasoning mix left over from the original fried chicken test and so I just sealed the zip-lock bag and stored it in the refrigerator as I couldn't see throwing out such a delicious coating mixture.  I soaked the pieces of chicken breast in a beaten egg and some buttermilk and then coated the strips in the flour mixture and then double dipped again in the egg and into a frying pan with some extra virgin olive oil.

 

Chicken strips draining on a rack	Chicken strips served with herb salad & mango

After the success of deep fried chicken and boneless chicken strips, I thought about using the Southern Fried Chicken seasoning mix on turkey cutlets á la Parmigiana sautéed in extra virgin olive oil.  In the same oven-proof skillet used to sauté the cutlets, I added tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese and baked in a 350°F oven until the cheese melted - see photos below - I also added a sprinkling of the seasoning on fresh asparagus spears coated in olive oil and stove top grilled as an accompaniment to the turkey cutlet.

My next experiment was with the Garlic Pepper seasoning which seemed to me a perfect  coating for rib lamb chops coated in olive oil - you can see them grilling on a cast iron stove top grill pan - and the accompaniment for the lamb chops - couscous with grilled red peppers and baby zucchini - before grilling the vegetables, brush with olive oil and sprinkle on the Cajun Spice seasoning.  The dollop of red sauce next to the lamb chop is a sun-dried tomato pesto -  you can email me at annevery@cookwithaloha.com for the pesto recipe.

The organic ingredients in the Garlic Pepper seasoning: black pepper, garlic, sea salt, onion, red pepper, spices, herbs. The organic ingredients in the Cajun Spice seasoning are thyme, oregano, sea salt, garlic, red pepper, onion, black pepper and other spices.

Fish was next on the testing list - I bought mahi mahi fillets, dipped in beaten egg, then dipped in the Great King Salmon seasoning mix and sautéed in a combination of olive oil and butter. I also coated wedges of red-skinned potato and slices of zucchini with the same Great King Salmon seasoning just to see how it would work with vegetables and it was a great success - the photos are shown below:

	Zucchini slices frying

The organic ingredients in the Great King Salmon seasoning: garlic, lemon peel, sea salt, spices, onion, red pepper, black pepper, herbs, citric acid

The fifth seasoning mix that I experimented with is Nebraska Prime Steak seasoning mix - I didn't have a taste for beef so I tried the seasoning on pork chops. I coated pork chops with olive oil and a coating of the Nebraska Prime Steak seasoning and refrigerated for several hours.  Then I stove top grilled the chops and finished cooking in the oven - I served the chops with cannellini beans cooked with a Puerto Rican sofrito - yes, you can email me for the recipe at annevery@cookwithaloha.com  There is a grilled plum tomato (that was before the salmonella contamination warning) along with the beans.

To order these seasoning mixes online directly from the company, click on this link:

http://www.buyaromatica.com/SearchResults.asp

Also available at the following stores nationwide as well as many independent food retailers in Southern California:

Whole Foods Market
http://www.fredmeyer.com/homepage/index.htm
http://www.meijer.com/home.jsp
http://www.winn-dixie.com/
http://www.kroger.com/Pages/default.aspx
http://www.bbqgalore.com/
https://shop.albertsons.com/eCommerceWeb/LandingPageAction.do?action=zipCheck
http://www.ralphs.com/homepage/index.htm

 

	The sleek stainless design of the containers for this extraordinary line of rubs and seasonings are stainless steel and provides protection from UV light and dehydration. The containers are called "Dibbis" an ancient vessel in which Indians used containers to use, transport and protect their spices.
Aromatica Organics also has an Organic Salt Free line of seasonings: All Purpose Poultry- California Herb Grill -  Lemon Pepper Seafood- Mesquite Grilling - Northern Italian - Roasted Garlic Herb. Just look for the "salt free" words on the label.