Salted_ A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral, With Recipes - Mark Bitterman [104]
QUICK JAPANESE PICKLED CUCUMBER
MAKES ABOUT 1 QUART
The Hindus paint a red dot, or bindi, on their foreheads as an ancient form of ornamentation that also indicates a focal point of meditation: the third eye, the site of the bright inner flame that burns in our mind’s eye. People living in the warmer climates of Latin America wear a bindi of another sort, a cucumber slice stuck to their forehead to keep cool on a hot day. This practice has always fascinated me. The sure knowledge that as the afternoon wore on the wearer’s sweat would salt that cucumber also made me hungry. The crisp, acidic rush of tsukemono, or Japanese pickles, brings focus and refreshment as an accompaniment to grilled fish, rice dishes, and sashimi. It can also be eaten on its own in a meditative moment.
12 medium Japanese or other Asian cucumbers
¼ cup shio or fine traditional salt
1 (3-to 4-inch) piece konbu (giant kelp)
Julienned zest of 1 lemon
Toasted sesame seeds, for garnish
Cut the tips off the cucumbers. Cut in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds with a small spoon. Slice thinly and toss with the salt in a large bowl. Set aside for 5 minutes. Then knead the cucumbers with your hands for a minute or two to draw out the water. Drain off the liquid.
Bury the konbu in the center of the cucumbers and scatter the lemon zest over the top. Put a plate that fits easily inside the bowl on top of the vegetables. Put a weight on the plate and set aside for 1 hour.
Remove the konbu. To serve, toss the cucumbers to distribute the lemon zest, and lift the pickles from the bowl with chopsticks or a fork, shaking off excess liquid. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.
PRESERVED LEMONS
MAKES ABOUT 1 QUART
One of the great pleasures of salting lies in not salting. Salt cure your lemons beforehand, cook and assemble your ingredients, serve, and let the lemon’s super-salted flavors hop around the plate like Taskiouine dancers. The citrus and salt goad each other on in a warrior’s dance, all white tunics and turbans and powder horns, and in your mind ring the bells of camels and the beat of rawhide tambourines. Simmer chicken in diced preserved lemon, olives, and fresh coriander for a superb tagine. Make a compound butter of minced preserved lemon, ancho or espanola peppers, and cilantro to serve over pan-fried fish. Chop preserved lemon with parsley, dill, shallots, and olive oil for a relish to top anything from rack of lamb to a goat cheese tart. And cut a strip of rind to garnish a negroni cocktail.
8 large lemons, scrubbed clean
About 3 cups sel gris
8 juniper berries (optional)
Fresh lemon juice, as needed
Cut the tips off the ends of the lemons. Cut each lemon into quarters lengthwise, leaving them attached at one end. Pack the lemons with as much salt as they will hold. Insert one juniper berry into each lemon.
Put the lemons in a sterilized wide-mouth quart-size jar, packing them in as tightly as possible. As you push the lemons into the jar, some juice will be squeezed from them. When the jar is full, the juice should cover the lemons; if it doesn’t, add some fresh lemon juice.
Seal the jar and set aside for 3 to 4 weeks, until the lemon rinds become soft, shaking the jar every day to keep the salt well distributed. The lemons should be covered with juice at all times; add more as needed. Rinse the lemons before using.
SALT BLOCK GRAVLAX
SERVES 6
Impress your Jewish grandma with gravlax, or just impress yourself. Actually, my Nana preferred the cold-smoked cousin, lox, but gravlax is an incredibly easy, positively delicious way to cure salmon. The name comes from any number of Nordic fish dishes inspired by the openly morbid technique of burying in the ground (grave) your salmon (lax) with some salt cure. I like this dish because