I’ll explain what I mean by the headline. I was rummaging through my refrigerator in a last ditch attempt to use up ingredients before they expired; the struggle. In the back of my freezer there were some Thai red chilies and Kaffir lime leaves, coupled in a Zip-Loc bag. The beauty is that these two items keep rather whilst frozen. I forgot I had these ingredients but I knew they would fit the profile for a dish I was making that evening where I was making some Thai duck boat noodle soup ( I’ll have to post the recipe with photos because it’s a knock-out!). This little seasoning salt seemed like an appropriate accompaniment to bump up the aroma and heat level.
Thai chili and Kaffir Lime leaf salt condiment
-equal amounts of lime leaves and chilies (example: I used 10 chilies and 10 small lime leaves)
1) Preheat oven to 270 F (130 C)
2) Line a baking tray with parchment paper and put the chilies and leaves on it
3) Bake for approximately 30-45 minutes. The leaves dry out fast but they don’t burn. The chilies will get a bit darker; feel free to turn them, but the darker they get the smokier the flavour is.
4) Let the mixture cool briefly. Add coarse rock salt into the mortar and pestle (please use a larger mortar and pestle than I did haha). This will help cut up your mixture better with the sharp edges of the salt, and also, salt makes things better. I ground the mixture into a coarse powder with bits of chilies and leaves still visible.
That’s it!
P.s. Add this to guacamole or hummus, rice dishes or basically anything. I love the perfume-like quality of this mixture but users beware, these chilies can sneak up on you because they are quite spicy.
Please enjoy!
-Robert
The Simmering Pot
The Simmering Pot 