Salty Gifts

My step-son, Ben, and his husband, Brian, like to travel. A lot. And I think they have found the perfect gift to bring back for me every time – special salts!

In the spring they traveled to Japan to see the cherry blossoms. I got a wonderful yuzu salt and another beautiful flaked finishing salt from Kyushu! Yuzu salt barely shows up when I tried to google it – although other yuzu products are more common. So after a bit of investigating for complementary flavors, I created a dish of pasta with scallops and zucchini, finished with a generous sprinkling of the yuzu salt. The salt from Kyushu has a pure, clean taste that finishes a salad or fresh vegetables perfectly.

Ben’s photo from their trip!

Their next big trip was to Peru where they found smoked salt in the Maras region. I think this gift turned out to be much more work than they anticipated because the smoke smell was so strong they had to wash everything in their luggage upon their return!

These salt mines are in the Sacred Valley of the Maras region, and the pools have been harvested since the time of the Incas. About 100 families own plots of salt pools, and Ben and Brian bought this salt from one of those families.

The first thing I made with the smoked salt was bourbon roasted peaches with smoked salt which I served for company with blueberry swirl ice cream that I made with homemade Maine blueberry jam. Since then we have discovered the smoked salt is good on so many things! One of the most sublime was when Hank and I made sandwiches on homemade sourdough bread with homegrown tomatoes, a bit of mayonnaise, and a good sprinkling of this smoked salt. It’s also great on fresh summer corn!

Now I’m looking forward to the next interesting salt that Ben and Brian find for me on their travels!