Salt

The lovely Felicity at Arbon Publishing recently sent me a copy of The Salt Book (Gubler, Glynn, Keast). Aside from being a glossy book I'd drool over and caress my cheek with in a bookshop, it's also a very intriguing read. It contains everything you need to know about salt, from the health implications of eating salt, to how to use salt wisely and great recipes that make salt an exciting ingredient to experiment with.

I tried some recipes over the weekend and I was blown away at how simple and inexpensive it is to make really impressive dishes.

Melon & Prosciutto (recipe extracted from The Salt Book)

You'll need:
1 ripe rock melon or honeydew melon
6 slices prosciutto (I used Serrano)
Persian blue or other finishing salt (I used fine Himalayan pink salt)

Using a melon baller, scoop out the flesh of the melon. Slice the prosciutto into small strips, slightly larger than the circumference of the melon balls. Wrap the prosciutto around the melon and secure with a toothpick. Lay the melon balls on their side and sprinkle each with an attractive finishing salt such as Persian blue salt.

Salty, smokey, thinly sliced Serrano prosciutto

Chicken in Salt Crust

You've probably seen something similar on Masterchef. Basically, you wrap a whole chicken in a dough of flour and salt, bake until the dough is rock hard and rest to slowly cook the chicken. The final product is really interesting. I've never tasted chicken like this. Obviously, it's salty. It's also incredibly juicy and chickeny.

Himalayan natural pink salt, hand-mined from deep inside the Himalayan Mountains

I absolutely fell in love with Himalayan pink salt. It goes really well with lighter foods like fruit or pasta and pesto because it's more subtle and mellow in flavour. Also, it's high in minerals and iron and is super pretty.