I was quite pleased with this little bit culinary ingenuity, if I say so myself. It’s entirely possible that someone has done this before, but seeing as Google searches on “bayleaf salt” (and variations) produce gazillions of results for the Bayleaf restaurant in Salt Lake City, cyber evidence of this is not easily at hand.

OK, so here goes. Bay leaf is one of my favourite herbs, but the hardness of the leaves means that using them is not straightforward. Well, not like basil or thyme, for example. For dinner a couple of nights ago, I was keen to get the fresh bay leaf taste into some steaks I was cooking. So, I tossed a handful of bay leaves into a mortar with a few tablespoonfuls of salt and pestled it until the salt had turned green. I seasoned the raw steaks with the salt about 45 minutes before cooking them.

I was delighted to discover the bay leaf flavours well-infused into the steaks. Yum!

(I’d be interested to hear about other interesting herb salts, so please feel free to leave comments)