There is a french expression "sauve-garder" which when translated, means "to back up". If you translate it literally, it would mean to save and guard, or save and keep. So today's post is in the spirit of sauve-garder, or save and guarding in order to keep. This is a new-to-me method of putting up the harvest, preserving herbs in salt!
I saw a post on someone's instagram feed just recently, someone I follow on a regular basis as he is bringing back some traditional ways to think about food and farming, and he mentioned this in a post a while back. I also saw something posted at The Healthy Home Economist's site a few weeks ago about making your own bouillon cubes, and so am melding the two together in today's project. The leeks are the only item from the store, oh and yes I suppose the sea salt is as well. I went out in my garden and pulled a good handful of curly parsley, flat leaf parsley and a generous handful of lovage leaves to use in this seasoned salt. If you don't yet have lovage, first start by considering growing this delicious perennial herb next year and this year, substitute celery and/or celery leaves instead. It will do the trick.
I did not measure any of these things, it's a loose non-recipe that is serving more as a set of guidelines. I cleaned and cut up 4 leeks from the store, threw them in my food processor along with the bunches of freshly-picked two parsleys and lovage (complete with stems) and whizzed them together until they were minced.
Minced parsley, lovage and leeks. A-seasonings-they-will-be. #harvest2015
At this point, I took out a clean 1L glass jar (or appropriate size to what you will have harvested) and dropped a few handfuls of good quality sea salt in the bottom of the jar. Next, I layered the freshly minced herbs in small layers with a good covering of sea salt over top each layer, alternating until all of the herbs were used up. I finished with a generous layer of sea salt at the top and that all traces of green on top were covered. And that's it!
Homemade bouillon-flavoured seasoning salt. #harvest2015
Once I was done, I thought oh shoot, I should have added some crumbled seaweed to the mix, in order to add more minerals to the mash. But alas, I will have to remember for next year. In the meantime, I am planning on leaving this in my pantry to completely dry, as the salt will desiccate the herbs and those flavours will infuse into the salt. In a few weeks' time when it looks ready, I will take the lot and mash it all together with my mortar and pestle, and use it as the perfect seasoning companion for roasted veggies, or will add it to broth (which I drink like tea) or on rice, or wherever those flavours and a bit of salt will elevate the flavour experience.
So go ahead kids, go sauve-garder your gardens and harvest now willya?