Salt is not evil. Sodium in prepackaged foods may be your enemy, but real salt used to season real foods is a tasty little friend. When used correctly, salt can really pump up the flavour on a fresh piece of fish, a grilled steak, or even a juicy piece of fruit. Of course, plain old regular salt is fine if you don't mind yawning through your meal...but why not a lemon citrus flavoured salt, a heated chili salt, or even a sweet and spicy cinnamon salt?
This is really one of those food 'casions where you can create and customize based on your particular taste preferences and needs. Love orange chinese chicken? Make orange citrus salt! Herb-a-holic? Make a herbed blend salt! Whatever your preference, the basic rules are the same. For me, I love versatile flavours that suit my main dinner staples, fish and chicken. Both of these lemon and chili salts do that perfectly.
First, just zest, mince, chop or crush your preferred flavour. I zested about two tablespoons of lemon and mixed with roughly two tablespoons of large flaked sea salt. On flavour number two, I chopped and pureed one red chili pepper and mixed that with two tablespoons of salt.
Then, things got crazy. I started thinking about sweet salts. What would vanilla salt be like? How could i use a honey salt? Well, in the end I only have so much room in my condo sized kitchen so I chose to take a tablespoon of my lemon citrus salt mix, a tablespoon of my red chili pepper salt mix, and added in another teaspoon of salt and one teaspoon of cinnamon. Fresh, spicy and sweet, it's definitely a new addition to my spice cupboard.
But you aren't done yet. The salt mixtures need to be dried out before using. Spread out your salts in rows on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, and bake in the oven at 180 degrees Fahrenheit for about one hour, or until completely dried out. I've read that you can also leave the baking sheets out in a dry area, but it takes about a week for them to dry out like this, and come on, who has the time or space for that? Yes, baking is key here.
When the salt is all dried out, I like to give it a quick pulse or two in my bullet to get everything nice and mixed, but you can use it as is too. Sprinkle over fish, chicken, steak or vegetables before baking, grilling or frying. You can also use it as a flavourful finishing salt to top a meal just before serving. As for the experimental cinnamon salt, I took a page from the southern climates typical beach snacks and sprinkled it over sweet, ripe slices of mango for dessert one evening.
But wait! I must also provide a word of caution. This is salt. Not seasoning. You only need a little bit, just like with regular salt moderation is key for both enjoying your food and not harming your temple of a body. Yes, you would think this is obvious. But sometimes a gal can get carried away. Not that I'm talking about me of course. Nooooo, never. Just go and enjoy your salt, already.
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