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SALT-BAKING

As a chef, and for any home cook, salt can transform a dish from bland to flavoursome.

I prefer to create a salt dough, rather than use a crust of salt alone, as you can add different ingredients to the dough which then impart even more flavour to the food it encloses. The flour in the dough also lessens the intensity of the salt, enabling more control over the seasoning. Salt-baking works in two ways: firstly, the dough creates a shell for the food, trapping in the heat during cooking so the juices are retained and the food is steamed within the crust. Secondly, it seasons the food while it’s cooking, with the salt permeating throughout. Traditionally salt-baking has been used to cook meat, fish and poultry (and you’ll find a Salt-baked Shoulder of Lamb). I’m focusing here on salt-baked vegetables to highlight what a brilliant technique it is for bringing out their wonderful flavour.

For salt-baking, rock salt is the only salt to use. Unlike sea salt and table salt, it retains its texture, so the food you are cooking will not be over-seasoned. I mix the salt with plain white flour (which can easily be substituted with gluten-free flour for coeliacs), adding herbs and – sometimes – spices before binding the dough ingredients together with water.

A good way to check if the food within the salt-dough shell is cooked is to use a metal skewer and insert it into the centre. Using this method to test for doneness means you can tell how soft vegetables are, and also how warm the centre of meat joints are, by holding the end of the skewer that has just been inserted on the inside of your wrist to gauge the temperature.

Once the item is baked, do not leave the salt dough on for too long as the salt will continue to permeate through it and it can become over-seasoned.