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Blog Posts Fall Sage

Thanksgiving Herb Salts

November 24, 2019
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Thanksgiving Herb Salts

NOVEMBER 23RD 2019

Sage is without question the herb of the season.  It’s hard to see, smell or taste, without thinking about the warming and comforting foods of fall, that start to bring us inside, literally and figuratively.  As we begin to settle into the rapidly colder and darker winter, sage creeps into our foods; in soups, beans, stews and most importantly buried throughout most of the dishes on our holiday tables. Just as pumpkin pie spice is synonymous with fall, sage is tantamount to Thanksgiving. There is nothing more quintessentially Thanksgiving than sage, except I suppose the turkey.

Sage is technically a member of the mint family and is an evergreen shrub. It produces prolifically in fall, after the summer heat dissipates. It has light greenish-grey textured leaves and a very pungent aroma. Its flavor is earthy, smoky and strong. Americans are only beginning to delve into the beauty and mystery that is culinary sage.

It’s been most widely used, until lately, in Italian cuisine and Thanksgiving foods like stuffing. As more and more chefs, home cooks, food bloggers and consumers get their hands on it and play, and as those ideas spread via the internet, we see lots of new recipes and ideas emerging.  An array of uses for sage are popping up in sweets and baked goods, cocktails and mocktails, fruits and vegetables and in various forms in meats and sauces. I’d say it’s one of the herbs that’s “taking off” and I presume that’s because it’s versatile and multi-dimensional. Its potency is easily alterable and it blends well with other herbs.  The robust flavor can be tamed a bit when either blended with other herbs or cooked. It is one of my favorite herbs, but I use it specifically and sparingly. It has an incredible smoky quality, that I love, that I think can easily be coaxed out further when paired with other smoky ingredients- Mezcal, BBQ’d stuff,   dried chilies and dried spices -especially fall pie spices. It has been one of the most enjoyable herbs to experiment with as I continue with my herbal salt fetish.

There was never a doubt that my Fall Herb Salt would be sage-centric. I gave it the starring role, but its blending qualities allowed me to use  a bounty of other fall herbs and create a salt that felt not only fallish, but very Thanksgiving-esque.  The accompanying spices to my Fall Herb Salt; cinnamon, mace, white and Aleppo pepper contribute warmth and flavor and together with the sage the end result is an incredibly functional finishing and seasoning salt that goes with just about everything for Thanksgiving.

Sage had me so revved up, that I couldn’t stop with one salt, especially as I geared up to cook for three different fancy Thanksgiving themed event this year, including my own Thanksgiving, which I will be cooking in my own home for the first time in a long time.

Fall Herb Salt

Makes 2 cups

This autumnal salt has a warm, earthy flare to it. The woody stemmed herbs that pounce out of the ground in early fall are as present as the softer stemmed sultry marjoram. Tinges of mace and cinnamon give spice and added warmth while the orange zest locks in some freshness. It’s as if Thanksgiving has invited itself to your meal. The tinge of fresh lavender  flowers, for slight floral essence, is optional.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon chopped super fine sage leaves
1 tablespoon chopped super fine marjoram leaves
1 tablespoon chopped super fine rosemary leaves
1 tablespoon chopped super fine thyme leaves
2 teaspoons fresh lavender flowers or ¼ teaspoon dried (optional)
1 ½ teaspoons Aleppo pepper
2 teaspoons finely cracked or ground white pepper
¼ teaspoon ground mace
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 ½ cups Maldon flake salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.

Mix together all of the fresh herbs, spices, and zest in a medium mixing bowl. Gently fold in the salt. Use your fingers to mix well, making sure the herbs and spices are well incorporated into the salt. Spread the salt-herb mix evenly and flat across a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Place sheet in the oven and bake until the herbs seem to have lost most moisture but still appear greenish, about 15-20 minutes. They should not be totally dried out. Store in a small bowl on your counter for a few weeks.

Sage Umami Salt

Makes 1 cup

Sage is one of my favorite herbs. Because it is ultra-potent, most of the time I believe we should use it sparingly. This is not one of those times. This salt becomes even more bold alongside black garlic and smoked salt. It’s one of my favorite salts for meat and poultry during the fall and winter season. It’s equally amazing on other foods, too. Black garlic, which is essentially an aged garlic, is what gives this salt an earthy umami punch. (Black garlic is super sticky, so it can be hard to chop finely because it clumps together – kind of like cubing cold butter.) It’s still potent but with a subtle sweetness that cuts the sharp garlic bite of fresh garlic. Sage also has a pungent umami essence, and pairing these two together makes for a more autumnal unami flavor. The other spices and orange zest just round it out.

A charcoal-grilled, bone-in rib-eye steak in the dead of winter, first rubbed with this sage umami salt, makes me very happy.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons chopped super fine sage leaves
1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper
1 teaspoon cracked fine long pepper (optional)
2 teaspoons finely cracked white pepper
1 teaspoon smoked salt, Alderwood or Cherry
2 teaspoons orange zest
4 medium cloves black garlic, chopped super fine (it will clump a bit)
1 cup Maldon flake salt
1 teaspoon maple syrup

Directions

Preheat oven to 220 degrees F.

Mix together all of the fresh herbs, spices, zest, and black garlic in a medium mixing bowl. Gently fold in the salt and then the maple syrup. Use your fingers to mix, making sure the herbs and spices are totally incorporated into the salt. The black garlic in particular needs to be pulverized into the salt with your fingers, as its super sticky and likes to clump. (Note: some of the clumps will dry out in the cooking process, and you will use your fingers again to pulverize them).

Spread the salt-herb mix evenly and flat across a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Place in the oven, and bake until the herbs seem to have lost most moisture, about 20 minutes. Turn off the oven, and let the salt cool totally in the oven. Once it is cool, remove from the oven. Again, begin to pulverize the black garlic clumps more, and mix them into the salt. Store in a little bowl on your counter top for a few weeks.

Cinnamon Sage Salt

Makes 1 cup

I needed a little finishing salt for a holiday appetizer I did for an art opening at the Bolinas Museum. My Fall Herb Salt, didn’t feel right, I wanted more sage potency and essence of the holiday as well as something that felt sweeter and savorier -simultaneously. It was going to top a maple roasted butternut squash, whipped orange honey goat cheese Danish with whiskey caramelized onions. I wanted the salt to melt in one more pop of flavor. This was the result. It’s sage and cinnamon forward and heavy on orange zest. I’m thinking it will be great in my maple pumpkin pie tart crust!

Ingredients

3 tablespoons chopped super fine sage leaves
1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper
2 teaspoons white pepper, finely cracked
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons orange zest

Directions

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.

Mix together all of the fresh sage, spices and in a medium mixing bowl. Gently fold in the salt. Use your fingers to mix, making sure the herbs and spices are totally incorporated into the salt.

Spread the salt-herb mix evenly and flat across a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Place in the oven, and bake until the zest seems to have lost most moisture, about 25 minutes. Take out of the oven and let the salt cool. Store in a little bowl on your counter top for a few weeks.

Blog Posts Fall Sage

Thanksgiving Herb Salts

November 24, 2019
November 24, 2019
ABOUT ME
About Me

Noted herb expert, culinary educator and recipe developer. Small business consultant traveling the globe in search of food and cultural knowledge, while working with small, local, organic, sustainable, and fairtrade farmers.

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Tis the season! 🎄🎄
One for Rudolph, two for me. This is one of my most whimsical recipes and one that is perfect to make with your kids  before Christmas eve.  Basically, the kids make herbal sugar cubes for Rudolph and you get amazing sugar cubes for an old-Fashioned cocktail.  It’s a rather fun project for all and one that the adults can enjoy long after Santa is gone. The recipe is super easy. It assumes you have some general herbs around the holidays for cooking.  Herbs, sugar and ice cube trays are really all that’s needed outside a few drops of water.
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Last call for #Thanksgiving #HerbSalts if you want them by Monday. Order by tomorrow and by Monday evening you can be tossing them into all your holiday #recipes 

Discount code herbal magic (lowercase ) gets you an additional 25% off. 

Shop.Herbal-Roots.com
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It's never too early to think about holiday pies.... i, of course, recommend using fresh herbs and making compound butters for your pie crust.... link to tips, tricks and recipes  in story....
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Instagram post 17942764406721299
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{Fall} 2023 -Nissa’s Version
 
Introducing my Fall 2023 Herbal Salt Collection for @myherbalroots
 
My Liminal Space……
 
Now available at Shop.Herbal-Roots.com
 
 
They are deliciously laced with the warmest and most comforting fall flavors, with specific, rare to fall bright notes, which I think we all need. Herbal flavors graciously gifted to me by my current Blue Eye garden. All of which I am only able to notice because of my own personal growth and wisdom born from past, more harrowing liminal spaces. The herbs have been thoughtfully crafted into my one of a kind, once per season herbal cooking & finishing salts- aka my culinary artistry! 
 
The timing of my current liminal space holds particular significance in light of the state of the world (the liminal works like this). When I first began crafting this collection the world was dramatically different. For me, drawing from my personal history (which I won't delve into here), it serves as a poignant reminder underscoring the importance of not just recognizing what resides within the liminal, but also of what we choose as our focus while occupying the liminal space. It is this focus that ultimately guides us as we step beyond the threshold, individually and collectively.  Liminal space choices are important ones. My herbal salt crafting is how I unravel all that is inside me, around me and fed to me.
 
The combination of tinkering with herbs, recipe creating, teaching and writing have proven to be my most effective coping mechanisms. These things also bring me great peace and joy, they allow for contemplation and growth. These are the ingredients of the “recipe” that grows me most, especially when combined with connection, noticing and
cross cultural experiences.

 These are my fall herb salts, born in my liminal space in Blue Eye, MO.

They are ready for your culinary adventures. 

 

Enjoy!
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I saw an article on radicchio in @nytcooking this am and it reminded me of an article and recipes I wrote a few years back on winter chicories for @ediblemarinwc . #Chicories or radicchio the main chicory most know, are one of my favorite ingredients fall as we head into winter and I’m happy to see this bitterly delicious vegetable getting more attention and become more readily available for more to discover what so many in the world know…….bitter taste is delicious and with a little know how, you can learn to use it and we can all get more varieties in our lives!

Link in bio to the edible chicory story & #recipes
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Chrysactinia mexicana

Super aromatic, lemony and pungent.  This plant is a lot like me, seems sweeter when you aren't real close up, there is a perfect distance of  the aromas optimal sweetness this is how it attracts  insects-  with this sweet aromatic side, but has an internal make up thats  harsher tasting that keeps it from being eaten by insects and animals. 

I admire its resilience and knowing of the harshness of the world. Ancient mexican medicine claims it to be an aphrodisiac. I use the flowers in many of my fall salts - mostly because I think it's resilience put in our bellies is useful. The flavor is strong but in a pleasant grass/wood/floral way.
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My fall 2023 herbal salt (for sale soon!) being used on a chicken and rice soup tonight . 

Apple & Celery Thanksgiving “Stuffing” Salt

Fresh Herbs: Sage, Rosemary, Thyme, Winter Savory, Marjoram, Bay Leaves, Gingerbush, Zuta 
Levana, Calendula Petals, Mushroom Herb, Fennel Fronds, Parsley, Lemon Leaf, Cinnamon Basil, Wormwood Produce: Celery Leaf, Pink Lady Apple Bits, Ginger Spices: Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Mace, White Peppercorns, Black Pepper, Purple Shallot Powder Other: House Made Sourdough Bread Crumbs, Maldon Salt

Rosemary Lemon Sourdough Toast as a soup side.
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My herbaceous #girldinner 😀💃

@mikesorganicfoods Thai Green curry packet and herbs and garden stuff.
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Fall Farro Salad..... (if you know about me and my herbaceous and seasonal farro salads lucky you) 

Roasted Cauliflower and Celery
Lacinato Kale
White Balsamic Soaked Golden Raisins
Aleppo Toasted Almonds
All drenched in an herbaceous cinnamon brown butter shallot golden raisin "juice" dressing 
Topped with feta and my Fall 2023 Sultry Sage Squash Salt

*sautéing the herbs in butter allows for the salad to be full of robust herbs, but their essence is laced throughout the salad, diluted in the butter so that sage, thyme, savory in particular feel softer and more enjoyable than simply tossing them in as a fresh afterthought.  The whispers of cinnamon in this are 🤩 cinnamon and sage = ❤️💃🕺 I am not a typical cinnamon fan - but used well holy crap.
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Mushroom Herb…. A mushroom- spinach like herb. Tastes of light fresh mushroom flavor mixed with fresh “green” or grassy notes. Vegetal and earthy. The mushroom essence increases while cooking. Very high in  iron and vitamin C. Higher in protein than mushrooms  and incredibly high in calcium.  A stampale in all my soups and herbal soup salts.
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Its the time of year for that dirty pear situation I love-  aka dirty pear #whsikey collins - made with spiced pear syrup (made with earthy date sugar) whiskey, lemon, melfetti amaro and soda... it taste like pear earth if you know what I mean.....
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Thanksgiving Herb Salts | My Herbal Roots