Sel et Herbes de la France

You know Oprah's Favorite Things?  This is one of my favorite things.  You can really spruce up anything without adding any calories.  Oprah doesn't need to worry about that kind of stuff...she has people!  :-)

I took several years of French classes when I was young.  If you took enough French, you qualified to go on the class trip to Paris in High School.  At the end of the day, my Doctor would not approve it and I did not get to go.  It’s not as sad of a story as it sounds like.  However, I’ve not used the language much sice then.  In fact, this may be the first time, and you know what happens!  Thank goodness for translating software.  Where would we be without it?  The name of this recipe would be “Salt and Herbs of France” in English.  That doesn’t sound near as sexy!  

At Kitchen Window, the boss man of their cooking classes, Dan, loves to talk about salt!  He wants to have classes about salt.  Soon, we’ll probably be able to get a degree in Salt!  This is very different than being “salt of the earth”, which is something to strive for.  :-)  I don’t use much salt in my cooking (any generally).  I do not use iodized salt any more for anything.  I use Kosher Salt as my “every day” cooking salt.  However, for a “finishing salt”, I use French Gray Salt or Himilayan Salt.  French salt is my fav!!  It is more wet than other salts.  It is DELICIOUS!!!  

I purchased something like this at Lucia’s.  However, they don’t always have it.  When I was running low, I went to visit my friend, Tom, at Penzey’s to see if we could make something like it.  He loves a challenge!  

I put this on top of most veggies, salads, potatos, pasta, breakfast, meat...everything except for fruit!  I purchased all of the ingredients at Penzey’s Spice Shop.  They are a Milwaukee store, but are all over, or you could order on line.  Their products are super fresh and cost less than any where else that I’m aware of.  Here it goes...

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. course grind, French Gray Salt.

3 tbsp. Herbes de Provence.  This consists of some mixture of rosemary, fennel, savor, thyme, basil, tarragon, dill weed, oregano, lavendar, chervil, and marjoram.

1 tbsp. Pink Peppercorns. 

1 tbsp. corriander seeds.

Process:

Add all ingredients to a pretty glass jar with a lid (or small shallow canning jar) and  shake until well mixed.  Serve with a small spoon.  AGAIN, NO CALORIES!!!  (not such a subliminal message).  

Note:  I thought that this would need to be run through a grinder, but the peppercorn and corriender seeds are very soft, so it doesn’t.  

On a salad, with fresh herbs (4-5 minimum), you will not even need any salad dressing.  This is also a really nice gift.  Lucia’s has an heirloom tomato salad.  $12.99/pound!!!  This is all you need!