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salty women
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march 30th 2005
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Greetings!
I love salty women
women who will waltz up to a bar and order a martini,
double dirty, with a chaser of olives
bullet-proof lipstick and a take-no-prisoners stance
with a voice that sets your arteries hardening as soon as
it hits your ears...
too often women are described as sweet
sweet?
cakes are sweet. chocolates are sweet. candies are sweet
sweet, be damned!
it's much more fun being salty!
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salt dipped radishes
and cold, cold, beer: the perfect salt sampler!
for one reason or another, I spent last friday night in the
quiet corner of a bar on sunset boulevard, just up from
the viper room
I had come there with a definite intent
there were two women at the table with me
there was a box of white powder on the table
we were huddled over it, discussing prices
not an altogether unusual scenario for west hollywood
I licked my finger, dipped it in the box, rolled it in the
grains, put my finger to my lips...in an instant, I was
transported. every taste bud on my tongue screamed,
'LIFT-OFF!'
I had just tasted a lime infused maldon salt
it was one of seven salts before me. the other flavours
included maldon salt with lemon and thyme; french sel
gris with lavender; celtic grey salt with basil, oregano and
thyme; hawaiian pink salt with citrus zest; sel marin with
6 peppers and smoked chili salt
for the next two hours, as we emptied some pint glasses,
I listened, enraptured, as the ladies of
makefoodoflove.com led me through the process by which
they create these amazing salts
a sprinkle of these 'finishing salts' achieves so much
flavour and cuts out the need for sauces, spice rubs and
all sorts of other time consuming steps in the cooking
process
I remembered a character in a John Irving novel who
always travelled with a paper bag filled with radishes and
a salt cellar
he would sit on the banks of the danube, armed for an
impromptu picnic and eat salted radishes
there couldn't be a simpler snack to idle away a sunny
afternoon: cold, cold beer and a bowl of radishes floating
in ice water
and that's how I got acquainted with these amazing little
grains...lined up all seven salts and dipped a radish in
each one. I heartily recommend doing the same thing.
click on the pic to the right and it will take you to
makefoodoflove.com
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white asparagus, radicchio and meyer lemon salad
the time is now!
does any other vegetable get headlines the way that
white asparagus does? it starts its season like a grand
dame returning to the stage; the germans have a
'spargel fest', the belgians, it is said, go quite mad for
these creamy spears...and the parisians, well, they'd
prefer them to be black (but then, they don't have to
wear them)
in less time than it takes to write this paragraph, I
trimmed a bunch of asparagus and steamed it for 2
minutes in the microwave whilst I threw some mache,
radicchio, cucumber chunks, oregano leaves and some
quartered meyer lemons in a big salad bowl
I plunged the asparagus into some icy water to blanch it,
shook it dry and placed it front and centre in the salad
bowl. doused everything in some O&Co lemon infused
olive oil, squeezed some meyer lemon juice on top then
liberally sprinkled some lemon thyme maldon salt over
the whole bowl
couldn't be simpler
serve: with grilled turkish bread or flatbread and some
grilled sausages, maybe a dollop of hummus instead of
mustard and sauce...
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grilled salmon with hawaiian pink salt
with potato chips
just as simple:
douse some olive oil, lemon and lime juice over the
salmon steaks, add a couple of flattened garlic cloves
heat the grill to medium
whack the salmon on
turn
cook the other side
sprinkle a good pinch of 'citrus pink' salt on top and serve
with the asparagus salad above, or a big pile of potato
chips and a dollop of sour cream with horseradish stirred
through it, maybe some wilted broccoli rabe or steamed
beans
just the thought of it has me chilling the chateauneuf du
pape!
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roasted root vegetables with herbed salt
you've gotta love a hot, salty root
I have always loved these flavours: parsnip, carrots,
swedes (rutabagas) and potatoes
cut them all into ribbons
heat some olive oil (I couldn't help it, I added goose fat
too) in a pan...hot oven, start it at 500 to get the fat
bubbling
mix 1 tsp cornflour; 1 tspn flour; 1 tspn herb gray salt; 6
grinds of a pepper mill and 3 smashed cloves of garlic.
throw this into a freezer bag, add the vegetable ribbons
and shake it all up
put the seasoned vegetables into the hot fat (careful, it
spatters!), shuffle them with some tongs to cover all
sides with the fat and put back in the oven
cook 10 mins, move them around a bit with the tongs,
turn the oven down to 450 and cook another 15 mins.
remove from the oven and scatter a small fistful of the
herb grey salt over the hot vegies
mix: 1 tblspn pesto, 1/2 cup mayonnaise and 2 cloves
crushed galic. use this as a dipping sauce
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salty sirens
marianne faithfull has to be the 'fleur de sel' of salty
sirens
her voice alone; the notes tumbling like crystals of uneven
sizes, going through a coarse grind... the briny tang of
her lyrics... her bleached weariness...
it all adds a flavour that elevates anything that she sings
as well as the moment that you're hearing it in
she has an amazing new album out, 'before the poison'.
it was produced with p j harvey and nick cave, so you
know it's going to be a light hearted romp through the
morgue!
in any case, the playlist this issue has been thoroughly
seasoned with her saltiness
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grilled lamb with lavender salt
I can't help it...
this is the tastiest combo since debbie and dallas, since
lois and clarke, since starsky and hutch...
I know that I've raved about it before, but there was a
lavender salt in the combo box that the girls gave me, so
I figured that I could say, just once more, how the salty/
sweetness of both the lamb and the salt sets you adrift
into a state of bliss
click on the pic for the recipe. it's on the site!
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devilled eggs with grilled prawns
and chipotle salt
last week, I was at Jar, a restaurant specialising in luxe
comfort food
this was the scene for my devilled egg renaissance
they had the perfect sweet/creamy/salty balance and
each egg had been topped off with a gorgeous, sexy-
naughty chunk of crab meat
everyone has their own recipe...I made mine with some
cream cheese, pesto and basil, and a pinch of old bay
seasoning...topped each one with a prawn grilled in oil
and chili and sprinkled some chipotle salt on top
click on the pic to e-mail me if you want the exact recipe
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lick sip suck
the alcohol equivalent of charlie's angels
salt, tequila, lime
lick, sip, suck
lime zested maldon flakes, don julio silver, a wedge of
lime
take no prisoners!
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