How to Make Flavoured Salt

Make your own flavoured salt with just a few ingredients.  It looks great on the table and tastes even better. There is no need to buy expensive fancy salts available in the supermarket when it is so easy to make your own - yet no one seems to do it.  As we all know, salt is a flavor enhancer bringing out the natural flavours of food.  Plain salt wakes up your taste buds, so why not change that into something sensational that makes your taste buds scream out for more.

I ate at Jamie Oliver’s Italian in Covent Gardens recently and he serves a little bowl of chili salt with quite a few of his dishes. It tasted so delicious I had to try it out when I got home. After trying a few combinations these came out as my favourites.

• Chili and Lime – for meat, fish and chicken – I used  pink Himalayan Salt crystals
• Lemon and Basil – amazing on tomato dishes –  I used Maldon Salt crystals
• Mixed herb – for just about anything –  I used Maldon Salt crystals

Your ingredients have got to be dry otherwise the salt will absorb the moisture in the flavorings and the salt will become wet. There are a few ways of drying them - air or oven dried at 150ºC for a few hours or microwaved for 1 minute.  I don’t normally use a microwave, but honestly in 1 minute your freshly picked herbs are dried.

The basic recipe is

• 1/4 cup of salt to 1 tsp of flavouring

It’s as simple as that.  Once the herbs or fruit have been dried, just crush them up with your hands .  Mix them in with your favorite salt and store  in an airtight container, or put straight into the grinder. Ideally, let it sit at least a day before using, to intensify the flavor.