A grain of salt: holiday gifts for under 5 euro

December 21, 2004

In just 3 days I will be one of the extended friends of family at an English Xmas celebration. This could be just the chance I’ve been waiting for to initiate a salt and fleur de sel tasting. It’s the thought that counts, right?

Fleur de sel (salt flower) is the term for the “young” crystals that form naturally on the surface of salt evaporation ponds. They are hand harvested under specific weather conditions by traditional paludiers (salt farmers). Purists would say that true fleur de sel could only come from the Guérande region of France, on the isle of Ré. Impurists know that salt is harvested all over the world and that the purists are just trying to market their particular brand of salt.

Fleur de sel is considered to be a ‘finishing salt’, a salt that is both rich in regional flavour and not too concentrated and therefore the perfect salt for sprinkling on salads and steamed vegetables. I have read (but have a hard time believing) that the term fleur denotes the violet-like aroma of the ripening crystals in the ponds. If this were true I’m sure the French would not hestiate to call the crystals violets de sel.
(Please read more… )

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Chestnut Hunting on a Freeway of Sheep

December 18, 2004

Just start imagining what that might be like.

We didn’t get in eachother’s way.

We wore red to alert the hunters. Saturday is hunting day.

technorati tags: Languedoc, hunting, chestnuts, food gathering, culiblog, sheep

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We’ve got more spice than you do…

And we’re also more organised than you are ‘ceptin the fact that everything still lives on the floor.
But it’s only a matter of days before F&K’s dried spice collection becomes a fabulous installation on the kitchen wall.

And so I ask you Gentle Reader, would any of you find it useful to have a spice-o-pedia?
Spice-o-pedia for PALM right here. That was a rhetorical question and I truly wasn’t thinking of that very unsexy answer.

Here are some other spice compendia and a book link or two (none of which I have read):
– Epicentre Encyclopedia of Spices
– Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages
– Indian Spice Catalogue
– Cook’s Thesaurus
– Elements of Taste by Gray Kunz
– Tom Stobart’s Herbs, Spices and Flavourings

debra at 22:55 | Comments (0) | post to del.icio.us