Have you noticed the explosion of new salts available now? Every specialty store has them and even some of the supermarkets are carrying a few gourmet brands. It seems they are everywhere. It can be interesting and exciting to study them, where they are from, what unique flavor they lend to food, are they used while cooking or as a finish salt. And the colors; a rainbow of beautiful choices. I've been hooked several times and am now the proud owner of all kinds of salts I never used before. Now the fun begins. How does it change the taste of a dish? This is called playing with your food, and I like it. I love to get all those little jars out and decide which one gets the honor of sitting on my food today.
Beside the flavor, and size of the grains, there are health reasons to be excited about the salt that is now widely available. We often hear bad things about salt and that is because table salt is refined and most people eat processsed food which is loaded with salt. There are 84 trace minerals in salt but 82 of these have been removed from table salt leaving only sodium and chloride. Not good.
Sea salt, however, contains all the trace minerals we all need in our diet. Celtic sea salt nourishes our body with the minerals we need as it contains all 84 trace minerals. Many wellness doctors say that everyone needs 1 tsp of sea salt per day. This salt should be in everyone's pantry. While you are there
do yourself a favor and get rid of that table salt. Your body will thank you.
It is fun to experiment with the different salts. It's surprising how different foods can taste with various salts. I am proud to say that my pantry now contains the following salts: kosher, fine sea salt, course sea salt, pink himalyan, maldon, celtic, fleur de sel, truffle salt, and alderwood smoked salt. Use them all and look forward to finding more varieties in the future.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Lemon Peel Powder
It is rare that I get to learn something new in the kitchen so when I find something that excites me I have to share it. I had this recipe in my "someday" pile and finally pulled it out to give it a try. (The someday pile is getting bigger and bigger so I think it is time to try some new things!)
Those of you who know me know how much I love lemon so of course this recipe was right up my alley. If you looked in my cookbooks you would be astounded at how many recipes I have for dishes with lemon.
The lemon peel powder is a recipe that fascinates me. To take something like a lemon and turn it in to a powder that will then be on your counter ready to use any time you want is fascinating. Lemon that doesn't have to be fresh yet it is always at the ready. How cool is that? I can't wait to try it and report back to you on all the ways I have used it.
I am sorry to say that I neglected to take any photo's of the process for this but here is the general recipe:
Organic Lemons, 1 or several (I used 3 meyer lemons because they are my fav)
Using a sharp vegetable peeler peel off the peel in ribbons. Try not get any of the white pitch as it is bitter. Arrange the peels on a baking sheet cut side up. Put them in a dry place for 2 days and allow them to dry. As they dry they will curl up.
OR
Preheat your oven to 250 degrees then turn the oven off and place the sheet of lemons in the oven for several hours. This speeds up the process.
Once they are extremely dry they are ready to pulverize. You can do this a couple of ways. You can use a mortar and pestle and some muscle to crush them. That technique seemed like too much work to me. I tried using the food processor and the pieces of lemon just spun around in the machine and no pulverizing action was happening. I then got out my coffee grinder and that worked perfectly. It is a more confined space and they get ground up pretty quickly. Plus I could see what was going on so I could pulse it until I got it all to the powder stage.
Once they are ground up you should end up with a powder. Put it in a spice jar with a lid and keep in a cool dry place. If you don't use it very often you can keep it in the refrig to prolong the life. I have it next to my stove so that when I am cooking I can see it and it will remind me to try it in various dishes. I think there are many dishes you could use it in such as soups, pasta, and vegetables.
I hope you give it a try. If you do and what to share your experience please send me an email.
Those of you who know me know how much I love lemon so of course this recipe was right up my alley. If you looked in my cookbooks you would be astounded at how many recipes I have for dishes with lemon.
The lemon peel powder is a recipe that fascinates me. To take something like a lemon and turn it in to a powder that will then be on your counter ready to use any time you want is fascinating. Lemon that doesn't have to be fresh yet it is always at the ready. How cool is that? I can't wait to try it and report back to you on all the ways I have used it.
I am sorry to say that I neglected to take any photo's of the process for this but here is the general recipe:
Organic Lemons, 1 or several (I used 3 meyer lemons because they are my fav)
Using a sharp vegetable peeler peel off the peel in ribbons. Try not get any of the white pitch as it is bitter. Arrange the peels on a baking sheet cut side up. Put them in a dry place for 2 days and allow them to dry. As they dry they will curl up.
OR
Preheat your oven to 250 degrees then turn the oven off and place the sheet of lemons in the oven for several hours. This speeds up the process.
Once they are extremely dry they are ready to pulverize. You can do this a couple of ways. You can use a mortar and pestle and some muscle to crush them. That technique seemed like too much work to me. I tried using the food processor and the pieces of lemon just spun around in the machine and no pulverizing action was happening. I then got out my coffee grinder and that worked perfectly. It is a more confined space and they get ground up pretty quickly. Plus I could see what was going on so I could pulse it until I got it all to the powder stage.
Once they are ground up you should end up with a powder. Put it in a spice jar with a lid and keep in a cool dry place. If you don't use it very often you can keep it in the refrig to prolong the life. I have it next to my stove so that when I am cooking I can see it and it will remind me to try it in various dishes. I think there are many dishes you could use it in such as soups, pasta, and vegetables.
I hope you give it a try. If you do and what to share your experience please send me an email.
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