Kitchens then and now

I was thinking recently about the things that I have in my kitchen which would have never been in my family kitchen growing up. The computer I’m working on, for example – but it would be very strange for me if I didn’t have one in the kitchen. I've gotten quite used to it being here when I need it. It’s quite useful and not just for writing posts for this blog-thing. I have a DSLR camera with an additional macro lense right next to my 12 cup food processor. My stand mixer has it’s own area on the counter with the sugar containers and flour containers nearby.

orange, lemon, lemon-rosemary, celery

I am ridiculously obsessed with salt and have kosher (of course), sea salt, Maldon salt, bourbon smoked sea salt, Himalayan pink salt, malt salt (this is outstanding on potatoes), Portuguese traditional salt, plus the four salt blends I made (lemon, orange, lemon-rosemary, celery) with the flaky Maldon. Pepper is a lesser fascination, but my list includes: India Tellicherry, Sarawak white, reunion pink, and India green.

I probably shouldn't get into the spices that I have that my mother would never have even heard of, much less tried. Maybe I will do that one day. 

One thing I totally take for granted, but am glad everyday I have is a dishwasher. When my mom built her house, the kitchen was small and there was no room to add one. She always did dishes by hand. I don't mind doing that, but I like having  the dishwasher all the same. It makes life so much simpler to set it to go off at midnight and have clean dishes in the morning. 

My digital kitchen scale is always at the ready as is my electric knife sharpener. I have learned a lot using the scale when canning and, particularly, when baking. It does make a difference to go by weight and I prefer that now that I'm used to it and it's easily done with my scale. 

It's an interesting thing that in the kitchen of my childhood with few bells and whistles, my mother made wonderful food. That's a true talent that you don't get from gadgets.

Citrus Salts

lemon salt 

Okay, obviously I have a salt problem. Or maybe it's just a time of year and the availability of fresh citrus every where I look. But I'm making more flavored salts, which I need like a hole in the head. Maybe I should blame 101 Cookbooks - they drove me to it... but then again I did have the Maldon.....


Lemon Salt
65 grams Maldon
2 Tbs lemon zest
Stirred together in a small bowl and make sure it's distributed well. Lay on baking sheet and bake at 225 degrees for thirty minutes. 

orange salt

Orange Salt
30 grams Maldon
1 Tbs orange zest
Stirred together in a small bowl and make sure it's distributed well. Lay on baking sheet and bake at 225 degrees for thirty minutes.

Maldon

So where does my new salt come from?
Maldon is on the east coast of Essex where salt has been harvested for hundreds of years. Salt was being produced from the Iron Age to the Saxon times. The original harvesters, it is believed, placed vessels
in the river bank to trap the sea water at high tide and they were left to partially evaporate and then on to clay pots which were heated to complete the evaporation process leaving behind only the salt. In the middle ages, production became more sophisticated by placing the brine in lead pans to increase the speed of evaporation during boiling.
The Guild of Saltmakers dates back to 1394. In the 19th century in Essex the industry started to decline due to taxes and easier methods of production in Cheshire. Only a single company carries on the tradition - The Maldon Crystal Salt Company.
Why Essex - environmentally, there is low rainfall in this area - with less fresh water the salt concentration is higher than other areas. With the rise and fall of the tides, the sun and wind ease evaporation and leave behind salt deposits.

Salt - Is it the only rock we eat?

Celery Salt

Making your own - thanks to 101 Cookbooks

prior to baking

I have never even thought of doing something like this before, but as I was making chicken salad recently, I remembered reading this post from 101 Cookbooks and thought, let's see what happens. I used the leaves from one bunch of celery, I rarely use the leaves anyway, and placed them on a single layer of a baking sheet and baked them at 350 degrees as suggested by 101 Cookbooks and at the suggested time of five to seven minutes. That wasn't long enough for some leaves, so I took off the ones that were dehydrated, tossing a couple that had gone brown. I put the less dehydrated leaves back in the over for another five minutes and let them cool. I thought for sure they would be dehydrated, but I didn't want them to go to brown because that would ruin the whole thing.

leaves & salt mixed

But... they still weren't dehydrated.
So what to do - I took the leaves that were still too soft to crumble and put them in the microwave for 10 seconds at a time on high until they were. I think next time I'll do all of it this way and see how that works. So I'm all ready with the celery leaves and then I realize
- I don't have the type of salt recommended. Here's what 101 Cookbooks says "I've made celery salt with a number of different types of salt, and the flaky, whispers of Maldon sea salt is my current favorite. The shards are similar in size to the crumbled celery leaves which works nicely." That made good sense to me but only had a small sample of Maldon, not nearly enough to mix with my celery leaves.

ready to use

So to the interWeb I go and find a great salt resource, SaltWorks out of Woodinville Washington. Lovely company with a great number of salts and free shipping. And the best price for Maldon I could find. So I waited and in due time, it arrived and I finished my celery salt. I'm pleased with it and plan to use it to rim a glass for Bloody Marys over the weekend.* Yum.

*It's pretty bad when you're planning your weekend drinking on a Monday. Sigh.