Rosemary Salt – For a Delicious Finish

 

 Rosemary is one of my favorite herbs. It is wonderful on roasted vegetables and on chicken, fish, or shrimp. But here is a new favorite – rosemary salt! It is so simple to make and will add a delicious finishing touch to many of your favorite dishes. I like it best on roasted or fried potatoes and baked (or fried!) potato chips. I also love it on ANY roasted vegetables or meats.
This is one of the simplest things you will ever do!


You need:
coarse kosher salt
fresh rosemary

Gather fresh rosemary. If the stems are woody, strip the leaves off. If you gathered soft tips that you were able to pinch off with your fingers, then you can use stems and all. In a bowl layer coarse kosher salt and rosemary. You will use more salt than rosemary. Leave this uncovered just overnight. By morning the salt will have absorbed all the moisture (and flavor!) from the rosemary. Finally, put it in a covered jar, and it is ready to use!




     I like to use this as a “finishing” salt. By that I mean that after a dish is cooked I then add this last touch so that the flavor hits the tongue just right.  I often use plain chopped rosemary IN the dish as it is cooked and then add the special salt at the end for layers of flavor.

Missy's Special Herb Mixture

This is great for roasted vegetables or meat. (My daughter calls it “vegetable rub.”) You can also drizzle it on salad greens as a dressing. I drizzle it on sandwiches or on any kind of fritter. I sometimes mix a bit with Greek yogurt to make a creamy type salad dressing or to use in place of sour cream on potatoes or Mexican dishes. Truthfully, it will enhance the flavor of pretty much anything!


You don't have to have much of any one type of herb to make this concoction. And please know that this is not a “recipe,” it is maybe more of a method in which you can experiment and adapt and change to suit your tastes or what is in your garden right now.



Here's what to do:
Gather whatever herbs you have at the moment. What I use is:


rosemary (ALWAYS rosemary)
basil
lemon thyme
sage
crushed fresh garlic
olive oil
lemon juice
salt
If you like you can add some fresh hot pepper.





If you don't have all of these do not worry; just make it with what you have! If you have other herbs you like, then throw that in too. You can even do this with just one herb if you like!

Put the garlic in the blender first with a bit of olive oil and give it a whir. Then add everything else. You want to use more olive oil and just some lemon juice. (I started adding some lemon juice and salt because that keeps it from spoiling quickly.) Make it pretty wet. Whir it up real good. (How do you like that technical terminology?) Pour it in a jar and store in the fridge. That's it!

You can use this to flavor most anything.  You can drizzle it into a bowl of soup.   You can use it on any vegetable either roasted or sautéed or right on the plate.  I also enjoy it on fish.  This is also great in a vinaigrette

In any use,  I often use some in the cooking stage and then a little bit after the food is plated that way you get different flavors from the same ingredient.

*Note- I have started using more oil than what is pictured.  I love the flavored oil.

Quinoa With Roasted Veggies!

Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-WAH) is the most nutritious of all grains!  It is high in fiber, a good source of iron, and is a complete protein!  Quinoa is quick and easy to prepare.  It only takes about 20 minutes to cook!  It has a slight nutty flavor.  A bag will cost about 6 or 7 dollars, but you'll get 16 servings from it!  You won't need to use any meat in this dish because one serving has about 7 grams of protein.

To prepare quinoa, you need to look on the front of your bag and find out if yours has been pre-rinsed or not.  Quinoa naturally has a bitter coating on it when growing that keeps birds from wanting to eat it.  If yours has not been rinsed already, you'll need to rinse it well and drain it using a fine-mesh strainer.  The bag will give you instructions on that also.

You will cook it using a 2:1 ratio of water or broth to grain.  You cook it about like rice.  I like to add herbs and spices at this stage.  You'll cook it around 20 minutes or until it absorbs all the liquid.  You'll know it's ready when the baby roots are sticking out.  They look like tiny tails.

Now you can treat it like a warm salad, or a base for roasted vegetables, or use a simple sauce.   I haven't tried it yet as a baked dish, but I looked forward to trying that also.

Roasted Vegetables, Mushrooms, and Quinoa

Y'all know I don't use recipes often and this is another of those times.  Use whatever you have coming in from the garden or whatever vegetables you have.  You can't mess it up!

Yesterday I had just picked my first zucchini from the garden, so it had to be eaten for supper!  I roasted it and some tomato and onions and quickly sautéed some mushrooms.

Here's what I did:
Quinoa - 1/4 cup dry for each person.  Cook that up.
Zucchini - cut in a medium dice
Roma tomatoes - about one for each person--cut in a large dice
  or
Small handful of cherry tomatoes for each person - leave whole
Mushrooms - cut in quarters or halves.  I like this better than slicing because I feel like you get a better burst of flavor that way.

Heat the oven to 425 degrees.
Zucchini or other such veggies will take the longest so get them in the oven first.  Put the cut pieces in a big bowl and toss with olive oil or use Missy's Special Herb Mixture.  (Add additional oil if you use that.)  If you haven't already added herbs, then chop up whatever herbs you have.  I like to use rosemary for sure.  Then  mix up whatever dry spices you want to use.  At least use salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Use cumin and turmeric if you have it.  Now sprinkle this dry mixture on the veggies stirring or tossing as you go.  Spread it all on a big sheet pan and put it in the oven.  Read more about Roasted Vegetables here.  Roasted Vegetables. Oh My!

Roast your tomatoes in a black skillet or thick pan.  Drizzle them with olive oil and add salt and garlic powder.  If using Romas, add a little lemon juice because they need a little acid.  Put them in the oven but keep an eye on them.  Pull them out when the edges get a little brown.  Add a little liquid like qhite wine to the pan to get up the little brown bits. (Flavor in the brown!)  Read how to make Roasted Tomatoes .

In a pan on the stove or in the oven, put a little bit of butter--a couple of pats--and some olive oil.  Let that just melt and then put in the mushrooms and get them coated fairly well.  Add more olive oil if you need to.  Add some salt and pepper and garlic and stir it all up.  Stick in the oven for just a few minutes.  8-10 probably.  Pull them out when the color just starts to change a little.  You want them to not be all shriveled and cooked down.

When the quinoa is ready, stir that into the pan with the roasted tomatoes and let them love on each other.  This is going to make it taste SO good!  Then when everything else is ready, either stir the zucchini and mushrooms in the dish or what I like to do is serve the quinoa and mushrooms on each plate and then top with the zucchini and mushrooms--mostly because I want my fair share of mushrooms!

I served this with some just-picked cucumber on the side---diced with salt, pepper, and lemon juice or vinegar.  Not swimming in the vinegar but just drizzled.

Eat well, Y'all!!  ~Missy