With everyone, including myself, at home so much these days, many folks are trying to fill the time with activities and taking advantage of the forced break to learn something new.
I thought I would change the things I had planned for the blog for the next few months to easy recipes, herb activities and even a few herb-related crafts. With Mother's and Father's days coming, you might even be able to make a gift for someone special.
Today is How to - normally I do these on Tuesday's but yesterday was election day and I was a bit preoccupied as I work as an election judge.
So today I am going to demonstrate how to make an herbed salt.
I've shown in the past how to make Herbed Sugar, but this technique is a bit different. For this you need fresh herbs and some salt. Sea salt or kosher salt will work equally well. I avoid regular table salt because it sometimes had additives, but it will work in a pinch. You can use any combination of herbs you want, but I always recommend using the herb blending rules which say you sort herbs into three categories, sweet, savory and pungent, then start with groups of three to find your blending basics in terms of flavors.
For this infused salt I actually used five herbs and broke one of my cardinal rules using two pungent together. I could get away with it because I added a second savory as well. The reason I used two savories, is I wanted the salt for using on grilled meats, so I needed more pungent herbs. However, you can choose to leave out one of the pungent herbs if you don't like stronger flavors.
Making Herbed Salt
Ingredients:
Kosher Salt
Fresh Rosemary
Fresh Chives
Fresh Oregano
Fresh Thyme
Fresh Sage
Materials:
Parchment paper
Baking sheet
Directions:
Step 1 - Line the baking sheet with parchment and cover with salt, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep.
Step 2 - Snip, chop or mince the herbs over top of the salt.
Step 3 - Stir herbs into salt and allow to infuse for about a week.
Step 4 - Sift out the herbs and enjoy the flavored salt.
Here is the How to:
Spread the salt then begin to chop the herbs into the salt. How you chop up a fresh herb depends on the herb.
Chives, which are long thin and hollow are best cut with a sharp pair of scissors. Using a knife tends to crush or bruise the chives making them mushy.
Thyme leaves are small the fine stems are not very tasty, so all you need to do is strip the leaves from the stem and can use them whole.
For rosemary, you first need to remove the fronds or needles from the stem. You can use a mezzaluna rocking knife to chop them fine. A chef knife and use the hold the tip and move over the needles method of chopping. Since I already had my scissor out I just snipped them into the salt.
To cut the sage you use the same methods you would use for basil leaves. You create a chiffonade.
To do that you stack the leaves and roll them into a coil.
Then lay the coil on the cutting board and chop the coil of leaves into thin strips. Take the strips and chop those in the other directions to make a fine mince.
Sorry to take the photo I just grabbed the first knife I touched and it was serrated. You should not cut herbs with a serrated blade. Always use a flat blade.
Then stir the herbs into the salt. I used my fingers. Let it sit out with a piece of parchment over the top and stir again very day or so for about a week.
Once the herbs are dry , sift out the herbs to get a clear white salt with all the flavor of the herbs you stirred in.
What struck me the most about the drying process is the herbs are dry to the touch, but still the same bright green color as fresh herbs.
So grab a few fresh herbs from your garden or grocery store and a box of salt (I think they still have these two items in stores) and get chopping and stirring.
And jar some up for Dad for Father's Day as this is the perfect for the grilling specialist in your family!
I thought I would change the things I had planned for the blog for the next few months to easy recipes, herb activities and even a few herb-related crafts. With Mother's and Father's days coming, you might even be able to make a gift for someone special.
Today is How to - normally I do these on Tuesday's but yesterday was election day and I was a bit preoccupied as I work as an election judge.
So today I am going to demonstrate how to make an herbed salt.
I've shown in the past how to make Herbed Sugar, but this technique is a bit different. For this you need fresh herbs and some salt. Sea salt or kosher salt will work equally well. I avoid regular table salt because it sometimes had additives, but it will work in a pinch. You can use any combination of herbs you want, but I always recommend using the herb blending rules which say you sort herbs into three categories, sweet, savory and pungent, then start with groups of three to find your blending basics in terms of flavors.
For this infused salt I actually used five herbs and broke one of my cardinal rules using two pungent together. I could get away with it because I added a second savory as well. The reason I used two savories, is I wanted the salt for using on grilled meats, so I needed more pungent herbs. However, you can choose to leave out one of the pungent herbs if you don't like stronger flavors.
Ingredients:
Kosher Salt
Fresh Rosemary
Fresh Chives
Fresh Oregano
Fresh Thyme
Fresh Sage
Materials:
Parchment paper
Baking sheet
Directions:
Step 1 - Line the baking sheet with parchment and cover with salt, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep.
Step 2 - Snip, chop or mince the herbs over top of the salt.
Step 3 - Stir herbs into salt and allow to infuse for about a week.
Step 4 - Sift out the herbs and enjoy the flavored salt.
Here is the How to:
Spread the salt then begin to chop the herbs into the salt. How you chop up a fresh herb depends on the herb.
Chives, which are long thin and hollow are best cut with a sharp pair of scissors. Using a knife tends to crush or bruise the chives making them mushy.
Thyme leaves are small the fine stems are not very tasty, so all you need to do is strip the leaves from the stem and can use them whole.
Oregano can be minced with a knife, but I like to use my garden scissors instead. I chopped the leaves and the soft stems because both are flavorful.
To do that you stack the leaves and roll them into a coil.
Then stir the herbs into the salt. I used my fingers. Let it sit out with a piece of parchment over the top and stir again very day or so for about a week.
Once the herbs are dry , sift out the herbs to get a clear white salt with all the flavor of the herbs you stirred in.
What struck me the most about the drying process is the herbs are dry to the touch, but still the same bright green color as fresh herbs.
So grab a few fresh herbs from your garden or grocery store and a box of salt (I think they still have these two items in stores) and get chopping and stirring.
And jar some up for Dad for Father's Day as this is the perfect for the grilling specialist in your family!
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