Texican Tex-Mex Rub

Tex-Mex cooking. The seller describes it as a blend for nachos, tacos, fajitas and chilli, with a hint of heat. It works as a dry rub on meat as well, but most people will use it as a general seasoning in a pan.

That is a question for your own tongue rather than a page — nothing published gives a heat rating, and heat tolerance varies enormously between people. The seller describes it as having a hint of heat. Taste a pinch on its own before you commit a whole pot, and build up in stages.

After browning and draining, not before. Brown the mince, pour off the excess fat, then add the seasoning with a splash of water and let it cook down for a few minutes. Added at the start it sits in liquid and never develops; added right at the end it tastes powdery.

Cooking it briefly in hot fat before any liquid goes in. Many of the flavour compounds in ground spices are fat-soluble, so thirty seconds in hot oil releases far more of them than an hour of simmering in a wet pot. It is the single biggest difference between a good chilli and a dusty one.

About thirty seconds, stirring constantly, then add your liquid immediately. Ground spices burn very quickly at that stage, and burnt spice makes a whole pot bitter with no way to fix it.

Yes — fajita strips are the obvious case. Toss sliced beef or chicken in it dry and sear hard in a very hot pan so the seasoning catches on the outside.

Add fat, dairy or starch rather than water. Sour cream, cheese, avocado, more beans or more rice all work; diluting with liquid mostly gives you a larger amount of the same problem. Better still, season the base mildly and let people add heat at the table.

Yes. Beans, rice, roast vegetables, wedges and corn all take it well. Anything hot and slightly oily will hold a dry seasoning; dry chips will shed it into the bottom of the bowl.

The ingredient and allergen statement printed on the pack is the only answer to that, and it is the maker's to give. This listing does not publish an ingredient list, and anything the seller's own description says about what the blend contains or is free of is their statement rather than ours. If you are avoiding an allergen, read the pack and ask the maker if anything is unclear.

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