Soon after opening Nik Sharma’s new cookbook Season: Big Flavors, Beautiful Food, I realized I needed to stop salivating over the beautiful photography and bookmarking the recipes and start to actually make them. Fascinated by spices—common and uncommon—as a taste cornerstone to any meal and how they elevate even the simplest of dishes, I found myself tagging just about every page. With that came the realization that I needed a different strategy to dig into this cookbook.
It was then that I found my starting point. Tucked behind the rich tapestry of recipes and flavorful chapters of Small Bites, Salads + Soups, Grains + Vegetables, Seafood, Eggs + Poultry, Meat, Sweets, and Sips, I discovered what I was looking for in the chapter called Staples. Here were recipes for Nik’s signature salt blends, one of the foundations of his flavorful dishes. These seasons are standouts all on their own, with unique blends like Curry and Makrut Lime Leaf Salt, Bacon-Guajillo Salt, and Nori and Yuzu Ponzu Salt.
True to what you would anticipate from Nik’s combinations of cultures represented on his popular food blog, The Brown Table, these salt recipes can be blended to create unique spiced flavors that are quite frankly so good you’ll want keep them on your table to add to just about everything. They are quick and easy to make, yet the tastes are complex. Double the recipe and place some in little glass bottles for gifts. Your friends will not stop thanking you!
Season: Big Flavors, Beautiful Food
By Nik Sharma
(Chronicle Books, 2018)
Try these three shared salt recipes from the book :
Curry and Makrut Lime Leaf Salt
Get in on the taste making! The full cookbook is now available for purchase in local bookstores and online.
