Hey lovely foodie friends,
This is an easy one. Spice up your life, yeah!
I usually use this recipe to use up older chillies, garlic or herbs that don’t look “pretty” anymore and I know I won’t use up before they go off.
Salt has always been a known preservative, yet it has a major downside, it is – you might have guessed it – salty and for people trying to be careful with their sodium intake, people who don’t have the time to soak things in water for endless amounts of time or people who simply prefer to preserve their food differently, it might not be the best option.
Anyways, I like using up things that other people would throw away and I think it also makes a nice gift in a washed cornichon glass, or else. Just simply wrap a ribbon around the top and turn it into a nice small present.
For three glasses you will need:
500g of rock salt (coarsley)
Five chillies of your preferred level of hotness (keep in mind that chillies get hotter over time and you still want to use your salt)
1 red pepper
1 clove of garlic
(a bunch of thyme or other herbs of your personal preference)
50ml of olive oil
a pair of gloves
a good blender
Throw all your ingredients except the salt into the blender and pulse blend, until you have a mix the consistency of a pesto. The colour should be bright red and it shouldn’t be overly liquid. Put on the gloves and mix your spice paste with the salt, until the salt has a bright red / orange colour and everything is mixed in. You can take off your gloves now (I came back from proof reading to add this).
Now spread your wet chilli salt onto a baking tray with baking paper or a silicone mat and set your oven to sixty degrees Celcius. Yes, you’ve read this correctly. It’s a very low temperature and believe me, if you turn it up to let’s say ninety it won’t come out as orange and vibrant as you want it to be. How do I know, you ask? Well, not to anyones surprise, I’m a very impatient person and have tried it with a basil-lemon salt. I ended up with fantasticly smelling salt in a brownish-sad colour and swore to myself I will just follow my own recipes in the future rather than trying to speed things up.
Put your salt in the oven, set a timer for two hours, put a wooden spoon between the door and the frame, so that the liquid can escape. Wander off and do something else, like watching a movie.
Fight Club, Pulp Fiction and Clockwork Orange are all within a two hour time frame and all amazing and I just noticed I’m getting old.
After this fantastic experience, turn your salt and do it again. You could watch a second of those movies, or you could watch two episodes of Game of Thrones or The Witcher, it’s up to you!
After two hours, turn off the oven and let your salt cool down. Salt, just like sugar gets incredibly hot and you don’t want to fill it in glasses while it is burning through your spoons.
Once it’s cooled down, fill it into your glasses or boxes.
You can use it for marinades, steaks, roast potatoes or anytime you want to use salt really.
Enjoy!
Jana Jarrett Nutrition 