Watermelon goes well with salt. Actually, salt enhances a lot of fruit. I’ve been in plenty of places where I ordered a garbage fruit cup by default because everything else sucks. It’s usually a mix of watermelon and cantaloupe, maybe grapes, berries if I’m lucky, and the fruit is pretty blah, but less blah when I salt the fruit.
it’s because salt enhances flavor in general. It’s why pasta cooked in salted water tastes better than pasta cooked in plain water.
A perfect example is our american style sushi rolls. Try a california roll plain, then try it with a bit of soy sauce. the added salt makes all the flavors pop. It’s the same with fruit, or caramel, or chocolate,or anything, really.
Yeah, but so many people seem to think sweet and salt is weird. I get looks when I salt my fruit in public.
When Americans use salt, a lot of times they over-salt. With sushi, I’ve seen people dunk it in soy sauce so that it is dripping. That’s too much and overpowers the other flavors.
To tie it back to some other things in this thread…rice and soy sauce. I like the combination of browned butter and soy sauce, especially with roasted vegetables.
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People definitely over-salt more often than under-salt, myself included. In general i think sweet-salty combinations have gotten too popular in a way. Not every sweet thing need a huge sodium bomb.
Big thumbs up for soy and butter. I use it for Brussels sprouts and green beans.
Post simmer sauce note:
I added 1/2 tsp of fish sauce during the last hour, and the final sauce tasted richer and more rounded than ever before, and without being overly salty.
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Since everybody seems into fish sauce (myself included). Do any of you use Maggi Sauce?
I learned about it from a Mexican cooking show I like. It’s basically MSG with some other stuff.
I use the stuff from Thai Kitchen. That seems to be the ubiquitous brand in large grocery stores here.
Try throwing in an anchovy or two sometime.
I like using Worcestershire sauce, which is kind of English fish sauce.
And has anchovies in it. I think fish sauce Maggi sauce and Worcestershire/anchovies are all flavour enhancers that add the umami flavour.
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Chesspain: If you want some umamai, take that sauce you’ve got there, throw in an anchovy or two, some capers and black olives, and you’ve got puttanesca sauce.
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Going through the freezer trying to use up some of our frozen stuff, I saw a package marked “chorizo” wrapped in butcher paper so I got excited about making jambalaya, since I have the other ingredients on hand, and chorizo can sub for andouille in a pinch.
Thawed it out, unwrapped it…and it’s ground chorizo (not in sausage form). I am disappointed, but fuck it. i’m making bootleg jambalaya anyway and will do my best to keep the chorizo in larger chunks. We’ll see how it turns out.
This should work fine I think, the main contribution of chorizo to dishes like jambalaya is the flavored fat that renders from the slices.
It might be wetter than you’re used to, though, if you usually use dry sausage. So watch out for that.
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it actually worked ok. Turns out I was missing an ingredient, and apparently the stores in Ramona, CA don’t have room for any weird southern food…so I had no okra nor filé powder. Unfortunately, that distinctive flavor is impossible to replicate.
I managed to make it edible and quite tasty, it just wasn’t exactly right.
Looks like i’ll have to order the filé powder online
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Not sure if mandatory home iso but damn I love this thread.
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Lunch today. Salmon Lox. Yes I put leftover bacon on it because why not?
Dinner yesterday: Nduja eggs (not picture)
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It is never not time for bacon.
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What about a bar mitzvah?
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Still time for bacon. Bacon even tastes good as a sin.