Bash and Sprinkle

If you have a mortar and pestle, then you have a versatile kitchen tool. With it you can make a slew of different rubs for meat, spice mixtures for the grill, and marinades to both tenderize and give flavor to otherwise monotonous chicken breasts. Or you can make flavored salts, adding a freshness and an interest to dishes that are already great, and to those that need a little something more.

Blissfully simple to make, calling upon a variety of different aromatics to flavor, the core of this seasoning is, of course, salt. Now don't get too frantic about the mere mention of, gasp-- sodium. This is simply a seasoning, available to sprinkle on food, to perk up the flavor, not drown in that high-blood-pressure-inducing kick of salt. Made in abundance yet used judiciously, flavored salt is a delightful accoutrement to any dish.

This batch of salt I made had a Mediterranean bent to it. With fresh lemon zest, carefully scraped off the fruit with a microplane; branches of green, herbaceous rosemary; a clove of garlic, paper and all, bashed around in the mortar and pestle; and with a 1/4 cup of Kosher salt; this salt was fresh, and bright. It is important to make flavored salts with a larger crystaled salt like sea, or Kosher-- a salt that will stand up well to all of the bashing about. The mortar and pestle is crucial. Not only will you give yourself a workout, but also it gives the salt the opportunity to muddle well with the aromatics.

Virtually any flavor salt can be made: chili and lemon grass for a Thai bent, basil and lime zest for a summery flavor, or a blending with cumin and tumeric for an Indian version. Once the salt is made, it lasts for weeks closed tightly in a jar, waiting to be used any way you choose, sprinkled on a grilled skirt steak, or lightly flavoring a soft-boiled egg. So go bash about, and salt with abandon!