Cumin Rant
My palate doesn’t seem to be quirky; it likes combinations of ingredients that most other cooks like. But I have a particular sensitivity to cumin. IMO, much of the NM-style food served in this area has too much cumin. Maybe there is a genetic component like the well-known reaction to cilantro.
The restaurant at which we ate lunch today is considered by some of my foodie friends to have the best carne adovada around. Maybe it was just a bad batch – probably it was just me. The overpowering fragrance and taste of cumin was repulsive. Way too much. A hundred times too much. LIke really bad B.O.
If I can taste the cumin in a dish, then there is too much. When I make this kind of cuisine, I use a fraction of the cumin the recipe calls for, using whole cumin seeds with an equal amount of coriander seeds, lightly toasted and pulverized in the spice grinder. The resulting flavor profile is heavenly. Overuse of cumin should be a felony. But then again, maybe this is unique to me since cumin seems to be used like salt around here.