I love you, Kosher Salt

hey hey, good looking

In the theme of Valentine’s Day, I had to write a post about my true love in cooking: kosher salt. Most specifically, Diamond Crystal kosher salt. I was first exposed to kosher salt in 2015 when I purchased Christina Tosi’s Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook, which changed my life in terms of how I approach seasoning in baking and subsequently cooking.

All salts are not created equal and they all affect the flavour of your food in different ways. People tend to shy away from using salt in their cooking for fear of it tasting “too salty” but learning how to use it properly will truly change how your food tastes. Many of us grew up with iodized table salt, which is likely why we associate salt with a “salty”, metallic taste. PLEASE THROW OUT YOUR TABLE SALT. Marie Kondo it from your life. It cannot and will not spark joy, it will only spark metallic tasting food. Replace it with kosher salt and joy will be everywhere.

Why kosher salt?

The size of the Diamond Crystal kosher salt allows it to dissolve quickly into the surface of your food, which makes it easy to taste and adjust as you go without worrying about oversalting. Fine sea salt is also a good option for everyday cooking but I find it doesn’t dissolve as evenly and therefore leads to more “salty” bites.

Practice Makes Perfect

Practice seasoning your food using the best tool in the kitchen available to you - your hands. I always season food by picking up with salt between my fingers, rather than using a measuring spoon. Over time I have perfected my “pinch” with my left hand (non-dominant hand) – I can now consistently pinch 1/16 of a tsp every time. Repeatedly pinch up salt until you learn the feeling of this measurement. I practiced by pinching and dropping into a ¼ tsp measure until I consistently pinched 4 times to get the ¼ tsp.

Want to learn more about salt?

I highly recommend picking up Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat from your local library or purchasing it for keepsies. Nosrat spends a whole chapter deep diving on salt and it is a resource I reference often in the kitchen.

Where to buy Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt:

• Amazon

• Your local bulk store – in Toronto I have found it on the shelf at Bulk Heaven and Domino Foods in St. Lawrence Market

• Rumor has it the Italian Market on Young in Halifax sells it

• Leave a comment of where you have found Diamond Cystal kosher salt in your city!

Go-To Winter Side Salad

6 simple ingredients

One of the first bloggers I followed on Instagram was Dulanotes - I loved her simple approach to truly yummy food. Back in 2016, she posted this recipe for Pork Scalloppine with Fennel Salsa Verde. Fennel is one of my favourite vegetables - tastes amazing raw with lemon juice and some salt n pepper, but also cooks into a buttery texture similar to cooked cabbage when braised.

I’ve taken Dulanote’s fennel salsa verde recipe and adjusted it over the years to make what I call the best winter side salad around. Winter meals tend to be heavier, especially when entertaining - braised meats, meat wrapped in pastry, etc. The brightness, acidity and crunch of this salad will balance the richest of tourtieres, beef wellingtons, pork ragu pastas and so on. A family favourite, always requested when I go home for the holidays, it also holds up well in the fridge for leftovers thanks to the kale base (albeit a little wetter than when first served).

Make it extra festive: add pomegranate seeds

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go-to winter side salad

Yields 4-6 servings

15 mins to prepare

Ingredients:

1 small fennel bulb, plus the fronds

¼ cup of lemon juice (typically juice of 1 lemon)

1 tbsp of capers

1 tbsp of extra-virgin olive oil

2 shallots, finely diced

1 head of kale

Kosher salt

Ground pepper

Method:

1. Dice the fennel bulb, yielding about ½ cup of fennel and add to a large mixing bowl. Tear off the fronds from the stems, and roughly chop before adding to the bowl.

2. Roughly chop up the capers to make them smaller bites, and add to the large bowl - it’s ok if some of the brine comes with it

3. Add your diced shallots, lemon juice, olive oil to the bowl, season with salt and pepper - give it all a good stir to emulsify the oil into the lemon juice

4. Remove the kale leaves from the stems, rinse, and chiffonade* into 1 cm thick strips  

5. Add the kale to the bowl and mix with the your (clean) hands, squeezing the dressing into the kale to tenderize it a little bit

6. Serve and enjoy!

*chiffonade refers to thinly slicing greens/herbs into long thin strips. To get consistent sized strips, I bunch the kale up into a tight ball with my left hand and thinly slice. After I’ve completed this, I chop into thirds the other direction.