Roast your salt for an extra delicious flavor boost
If you’re also sometimes tired of your spice collection, or if you’d like to sprinkle something over your perfectly fried egg but plain salt is just sooooo boring, you should give this a try…
Because many people are sometimes looking for an easy way to add a little more punch to their meals, or could use some ideas for getting the most out of the standard contents of their kitchen cupboards.
Five minutes of effort, weeks of enjoyment
I have quite an extensive assortment of herbs and spices myself, and yet I often think, ‘I have nothing to sprinkle over this dish.’ That’s mainly because my former self never took the time to set aside just five minutes to make a little blend, even though it’s so easy. Roasting and coarsely grinding spices, or roasting them, is really done in no time. Recently, with some foresight, I made dukkah in five minutes, and we enjoyed it for two weeks. And this is definitely worth trying too:
Roasted salt
Roasting, which you do in a well-seasoned wok or cast-iron pan, gives salt a very distinctive flavor. We previously explained what the term ‘wok hei’ means. It may not translate very precisely, but it comes close to ‘the breath of the wok’: the smoky aroma and flavor that develops when evaporated oils catch fire in the pan, the changes seasonings undergo over very high heat, and especially when the pan itself is properly seasoned. Here you can read exactly how to season a wok, and how to season a cast-iron pan.
Salt sponge
It’s mainly the fact that the pan is properly seasoned that can give salt such a delicious flavor. The chemical structure of the salt itself doesn’t really change when you put it in a dry pan. It’s not as if you’re toasting bread or aiming for a Maillard effect. Instead, it’s the flavorful oils left behind in the wok or cast-iron pan because you never wash it with dish soap that get absorbed by the salt.
Cleaner isn’t always better
It’s therefore essential that you only do this in a properly seasoned pan. This won’t work with an ‘ordinary, clean’ frying pan, and certainly not in a nonstick pan.
Get started
Convinced that you should try this sometime? Then follow the steps we learned from the food platform Bon Appétit: place a wok or cast-iron frying pan (again, one that is properly seasoned) over medium-high heat. Add a small layer of coarse or kosher salt to the pan (start with 3 tablespoons, so you can calmly see whether this is for you), and shake and swirl the pan until it starts to smoke. You can also put a lid on the pan, which keeps the smoke inside and adds flavor to the salt as well. Roast the salt for about seven to ten minutes, until it is nicely brown. And very important: just as when seasoning your wok or cast-iron pan, turn on the extractor hood and/or open the windows!
Use the salt on anything you would normally sprinkle with salt: fried or perfectly boiled eggs, avocado toast, tender grilled chicken breast, anything!
Also read:
- 5 tips for your best wok life
- What’s the difference between cheap table salt and expensive salt?
- Why you should get rid of your nonstick pans
Source: Bon Appétit
