Culinary Art
To many people, unsalted dishes seem tasteless. Without salt in our bodies, numerous vitally important processes would not be possible at all. And as it holds good for everything, so it does for salt: let us consume it in carefully allotted quantities and only those of top quality.
Salt and Herb Soup
To serve 4 people you need:
- 1 l of warm water
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 2 peeled and chopped cloves of garlic
- 1 teaspoon each of washed and finely chopped or crushed herbs – rosemary, bay leaf, thyme and sage
Heat olive oil in the pot, making sure it does not burn. Fry garlic in it, but only until it gives off a pleasant smell. Add the herbs and stir them to get well soaked with oil. Pour water in it, add salt and bring it to the boil. Then let it simmer for 10 minutes at the most.
Fish in Salt
To serve 4 people you need:
- 1 kg of fish
- 1 kg of salt
Heat the oven to 230° C. Clean and wash the fish; first under a jet of cold water, then with warm water. Line the baking dish with the baking paper and spread a little less than half of the salt on it. Place the fish on it and carefully cover it with the remaining salt, ensuring that the salt cover is airtight. Keep baking until the salt cover turns grey-brown. In the meanwhile, the juices will start trickling out of the fish and into the salt, making its cover hard. Take the baked fish out of the oven, let it stand for few minutes for the juices to »calm down«, and then break the cover with the meat mallet.
Salt Bread
To serve 4 people you need:
- 2 medium-sized potatoes, peeled, boiled and cooled
- 1 kg of wholemeal flour and additional 10 tablespoons for the bread foundation and sprinkling
- 800 ml of warm water
- 2 tablespoons of salt and some for sprinkling
- 4 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 small egg
Preparation:
First prepare the bread foundation. Mash the potatoes and sprinkle with 4 tablespoons of flour. Knead thoroughly. Place in the glass jar and close tightly. Let it rest in a dark warm place, e.g. cupboard, for 2 days.
Knead again and let it rest in the closed jar for another day.
Add another tablespoon of flour, 100 ml of warm water, knead again and place back into the glass jar and this time let it rest for 2 days.
Take it from the jar and place it in a warm dish, sprinkle with 4 tablespoons of flour and pour 4 tablespoons of warm water over it. Knead it again and then let it rest in the dish under a napkin, until the dough doubles in size. Take 400 g from it and store the rest in the tightly closed dish in the fridge for some other time.
Knead ½ kg of flour and 400 ml of warm water into the separated bread foundation, cover with napkin and let it rest for half and hour. Then make a small cavity on top, pour the rest of the warm water into it (400 ml), add salt and olive oil and knead tightly together. Keep kneading for a while, then place into oiled dish, cover with napkin and let it rest for two hours and a half. In the meanwhile heat the oven to 200° C. Cut the dough in half. Place both parts, shaped into loaves, in the baking dish lined with baking paper, which you have sprinkled with flour. Then tightly press the oven grate gently against the top of the loaves. Place them into the oven for 10 minutes, then take them out of it, smear with whisked egg and sprinkle a generous amount of salt on them. Place back into the oven for another 20 minutes. Then let them cool on the oven grate.
