Hello! My name is Jessica and I live in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago with my Siamese cat, Chai. Recently I have fallen in love with Beyond the Shaker and can never go back to using regular salt! Every time I cook its so exciting to season each dish with a different salt. After slaving over potato pancakes for Hanukkah at a friend’s house last month I was devastated to realize I forgot my special salt and had to use Morton. That was when I knew I was officially a salt convert. Beyond the Shaker’s salts are so beautiful and delicious that you can really see and taste the difference. I’m going to start sharing ways to use these wonderful salts; they make even a simple meal something special.

Salt has always been my favorite ingredient- it’s the most important element in food! You should never leave home for a road trip without salt and hot sauce in the glove compartment. After graduating from college I traveled to Israel and kept tiny packets of salt in my wallet, as we never knew what our next meal would be and it could be bland. A piece of pita with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and a sprinkle of salt was my daily breakfast as we traveled across the beautiful country.

While studying abroad in Florence I taught myself to cook and it’s been my favorite thing to do (other than seeing live music) ever since. Italians are so pornographic about everything from tomatoes to fresh focaccia – I lived above a bakery- to cheese, good wine and gelato that it was impossible not to fall in love with La Dolce Vita forever.

I love to cook and eat with friends and am always looking for the next culinary adventure- everything from ethnic holes in walls to the best restaurants in Chicago. I love Vietnamese, Korean, Italian, Indian and Mexican food and enjoy making Jewish dishes like my famous fluffy matzoh balls. Recently I traveled to New Orleans for the first time and have been working on my gumbo!

My food philosophy is the best things are simple and using fresh ingredients and good seasoning is all you need. I almost always cook vegetarian at home but love to eat everything so meat is a treat. Keeping a well-stocked pantry of staples will let you whip up delicious dinners every night in half an hour. Things my kitchen can never be without: Sriracha, miso paste, olive oil and SALT. My must-have Beyond the Shaker is the Murray River salt- it is so light and delicate and works with everything. Thanks for reading and I’m really looking forward to cooking together, cheers!

In our opinion, gourmet salt is the quintessential ingredient during the holiday season. This festive time is filled with food and family, and so to enhance the experience, we recommend replacing lifeless, processed, table salt with all natural, flavor-forward, gourmet salts. Our salts are each packaged in beautiful, hand made, glass jars that we import from Italy to truly show off the splendor and natural color of our products. In addition to individual jars, we have gift sets available, which make a thoughtful and unique present for just about anyone on your holiday list.

Our premium salts are divided into two categories – Pure Foundation and Beyond Blends. The Pure Foundation collection highlights the wonderful variety of salts from around the world in their natural state without any additional ingredients. This is a good place to start, and if you are looking to move beyond table salt, we would highly recommend trying the pink flakes of Murray River or the deep brine flavor of Sel Gris.

The Beyond Blends collection is our exclusive line of chef-inspired, hand blended, gourmet salts. As a base, each of these blends uses one or more of the Pure Foundation salts, and then our salt chef incorporates only the finest premium ingredients to further enhance the flavor of the salts for a variety of culinary applications. Our focus is organic and locally-derived ingredients in our blends, and certainly you will experience the difference the moment you open the jar! Some of our most popular salts from the Beyond Blends collection during the holiday season are the sweet and smokey Hickory Maple Blend and the dill powerhouse Dill-icious Blend.

And while you are checking off gifts for the holiday season, do not forget our unique variety of Saltwares!

Check out this Internet site we found that is focused on pink salt! It is pinksalt.org .

We love ourselves Himalayan Pink salt, Bolivian Rose and Murray River.

Beyond the Shaker actually sells an awesome three jar set of pink salts that includes all of the above! Anyway, we are super happy that gourmet salts and pink salt in particular is becoming so popular!

Another resource in the kitchen that I find myself reaching for often, and just ‘reading’ randomly during downtime is What’s A Cook To Do? an invaluable reference by James Peterson (here is a Amazon link). The book is captioned as an “Illustrated Guide To Essential Tools, Tips, Techniques, and Tricks” – and I can attest to the honesty of that statement. The book is chocked full of hundreds of color photos of food and culinary tools. Even better, there are detailed pictures of knife work on various vegetables, proteins and breads.

Peterson has a concise commentary on various salts, which includes a brief discussion of the four essential types of salt that should be in the home chef’s arsenal. These salts are comprised of inexpensive kosher salt, fine flake or grain salt (for when coarse salt is too crunchy, we would recommend Murray River), sea salt (like Sel Gris, which is full of ocean flavors), and Fleur de Sel for delicate foods.

I found the section of the book on broths, soups and sauces to be very informative. The shellfish and fish chapter is also quite educational (including several ways to prepare scallops – a personal favorite). Want detailed directions on how to carve a chicken or make a prime rib roast? Check out the poultry and meat section. Peterson’s writing style is easy to follow, and his detailed techniques show expansive depth of knowledge.

If you can’t tell, I would definitely recommend this guide for any home chef, and at $11.53 on Amazon, honestly it is an unbelievable deal.

It is winter in the Midwest. This means shortened days and bone chilling, unrelenting, cold. This is the type of cold your mom warned you of…it sinks into your body and you feel like a long forgotten icy-pop from the back of the freezer (the one with the strange ‘yellow’ flavor that no one likes). Yeah, that is some serious cold!

So warm up with this delightful carrot soup, which we promise is incredibly filling and robust. One bowl will allow you to battle even the worst of the winter weather while it warms you from the inside out. Some folks out there are probably rolling their eyes about the prospect of carrot soup. At first it does sound a little boring, like a hospital meal, but what if I told you that THIS particular recipe has almost a bottle of wine in it? Hmmm…I certainly am not aware of any ER that is serving such culinary fare! And what if I went on to tell you that this recipe for carrot soup also contains the kick of fresh grated ginger root? Ah, yes, this really is not your typical carrot soup recipe, so perhaps you should give it a whirl and let your taste buds decide for themselves!

The other promise we can make you is that this recipe is ridiculously easy. The flavors do the work for you. No, they don’t cut up the onions or peel the carrots, but if you can accomplish the simple task of getting stuff in a pot, you will be a ‘seasoned’ (HA, never gets old) professional at whipping up this wonderful soup for you and your family/friends. AND the best part, is that it is not cream based, so there is an argument that it probably is not entirely bad for you (the 6 tablespoons of butter might indicate differently, but we will leave that determination to the experts).

Here are the ingredients:

6 tablespoons of butter, unsalted (you will be the master of what salts go into your food!)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1/3 cup chopped ginger root (you can pick this up at most grocery stores now..just use a potato peeler to remove the brown outer skin)
3 cloves of chopped garlic
5 cups of chicken or veggie stock, unsalted (I think you know why)
2 cups of dry white wine (just grab any old dry white wine, the grape varietal is not important)
1 lb of carrots, peeled and chopped into little coin shapes
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of either Beyond the Shaker Hot Habanero Blend (for those folks that want even more kick) or Citrus Basil Blend (for those folks that like a stronger citrus flavor)
Fresh chives (optional, but yummy)
2 teaspoons of a Pure Foundation Collection salt with a flakey texture, like Sel Gris, Fleur de Sel or Murray River.

1. Prepare all your ingredients ahead of time. Seriously. Organization like this will help make your cooking experience much more delightful and less rushed. Chop your onions, garlic and ginger root and toss them in a bowl together. Separately peel and cut your carrots. Have your wine bottle open (a small swig at this point is acceptable).

2. Get a large stock pot and put it on a medium heat. Add the butter and allow it to melt then add the olive oil. Drop in your onion, garlic and ginger root. Stir this around until the onions just start to become clear. Turn down the heat if anything starts to brown in the pot (browning is bad at this point).

3. Once your onions just begin to become clear add your Beyond Blend salt (either Hot Habanero Blend or Citrus Basil, but feel free to experiment too) and the carrots. Keep mixing (folding the carrots into the yummy flavors already built up in the pot) until the onions are completely clear. Add in the wine. Scrap the bottom of the pot with your mixing spoon or spatula to release all the crazy good flavors that have caramelized there. The wine will help you a lot here. Now keep mixing periodically until the whole mixture starts to boil.

4. Now add in the chicken or veggie stock and wait until the mixture boils again, and then turn it down to a simmer (like a mini boil, small little bubble escaping across the entire surface).

5. The mixture should simmer until you can pull a carrot out and it is soft all the way through (put a fork in it to test). Turn off the heat completely. Add the lemon juice.

6. If you are using a blender with a glass pitcher, be careful to allow the mixture to cool a bit before blending. The heat can easily crack the blender, and that would mean ‘no soup for you!’ Pour the mixture into a blender. Blend the heck out of it until it is a consistent and uniform color.

7. Add the blended mixture back to the pot to warm it up again, if necessary. To serve, add to bowls and top with the rough chopped chives and the flakey salt – season to taste with the salt. Most likely the soup will need some salt at this point since we were careful to only include ingredients that did not have salt in them in our soup mixture.

That is it! Seriously, I broke out each step to guide you through the process, but do not let that fool you into thinking this recipe is complex. It is very simple and the robust flavors will make you think differently about carrot soup. In all, it took about 45 minutes to make with the bulk of the time required to allow the carrots to become tender.

For the more adventure driven cooks, try these variations:

1. Add two medium sized Serrano peppers, chopped, to the mix at the same time as wine. The trick to the heat is the seeds of the pepper. Add them all if you want some SERIOUS heat or add just a bit for some nice spicy warmth.

2. Parsnip. Sounds like a funny name, but tastes great with carrot. Take three large parsnips, peel them with a potato peel. Coat with olive oil and put on a roasting pan covered with aluminum foil in a 400 oven for about 20 minutes. The parsnips are ready when they have a little brown to them and are soft. Now throw this into the mix at the same time as the carrots. Wow, is that good and worth the extra effort. Seriously do not rob yourself of the yum.

3. Add a dollop of plain yogurt or butter to the top of the soup just prior to serving.

Mmm, brussels sprouts (not brussel sprouts, as thought by many). This poor vegetable is loathed by millions of children who are forced to choke it down before being rewarded with dessert. But this disrespected member of the cabbage family has recently been updated to celebrity status. Instead of an overly boiled staple served with equally overcooked pot roast, brussels sprouts are experiencing a renaissance.  Take, for example, Iron Chef Michael Symon and his new Detroit restaurant, Roast.  I could go on and on about the virtues of this fantastic, meat-centered restaurant, but this post is about the vegetables.  One of the non-meat stars on Chef Symon’s menu is the fried brussels sprouts side dish.  Deliciously crispy and slightly sweet, these crispy treats are well salted, almost like mini-cabbage fries. 

I experienced my rebirth with brussels sprouts last Thanksgiving.  The grocery store featured brussels sprouts on the stalk, and I couldn’t resist this cool looking veggies.  After exhaustive research, I settled on a recipe that combined sauteed bacon, apple cider vinegar and shredded brussels sprouts.  The salty bacon, combined with the sweet, cabbagey brussels sprouts and the tart and tangy cider vinegar…this will be a new, permanent fixture on the Thanksgiving table.  But after Thanksgiving, I forgot about brussels sprouts.  Until two weeks ago.

While strolling through the Farmers’ Market on Saturday morning, there they were.  These perfect, tiny, green orbs.  They were much smaller than the fall brussels sprouts, but they looked equally delicious.  And a wonderful sauteed brussels sprout dish sounded like a great compliment to pork or chicken off the grill.  I took my precious little globes of goodness home with me to experiment.

First up, sauteed.  I couldn’t resist the lure of bacon.  The bacon/brussels sprouts combination is so enticing.  Chop two to three slices of bacon and cook until the fat has melted and the resulting bacon bits are crispy.  Remove the bacon bits with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat behind.  Start by chopping off the ends, then slicing the brussels sprouts in half from top to bottom.   Lay the brussels sprouts cut side down in the pan with the bacon fat, adding olive oil if there is not enough bacon fat left for all the sprouts, and cook for three to five minutes, until the cut sides are brown and beginning to carmelize.   At this point, I season generously with one of the milder salts.  For me, Murray River is the go to.  I love the light, flaky, texture and perfect salt flavor.  It melts quickly into a dish and isn’t overpowering. Add about a cup of water to the pan, cover and cook until the brussels sprouts are tender to the tooth, but not mushy.  At this point, I uncover the pan to let the rest of the water boil away, add the bacon bits back in and quickly splash of about a tablespoon of apple cider in the pan, tossing the sprouts to coat.  Finish with more Murray River or Garlic Shallot for a little extra crunch (Bolivian Rose provides a delicious crunch, too!)  This is such a tasty side dish, my mouth is watering.

The following week, I wanted to try something different.  Both Ina Garten and Mark Bittman’s How to Eat Everything have roasted brussels sprouts recipe.  Roasting is very simple and requires less attention than sauteing.  This time, I started with olive oil in an oven proof pan, and again laid my brussels sprouts cut side down in the pan for three to five minutes.  Once they started to carmelize, I added about five cloves of garlic and put the pan in the oven at 400 degrees for fifteen minutes.  Your cooking time will vary tremendously based on the size of the brussels sprouts, but the goal is dark and crispy on the outside, tender and delicious on the inside.  Salt generously with a Beyond the Shaker salt that compliments the crunch; I like Himalayan Pink or peppery Chef’s Blend.  For a salty, smoky treat, Alderwood Smoke is a fantastic choice or you can spice them up with Hot Habanero.  You can dress this dish up a little with a drizzle of good balsamic vinegar, but they are truly perfect just simple and salty.

Why do I crave salt?  From time to time, everyone experiences cravings.  Cravings can be influenced by culture, by the seasons, by your particular taste buds. A craving may signal a certain nutritional inadequacy or deficiency.  My cravings typically tend towards savory foods, and I often crave salt.  But why?  Why do we crave salt?  There is a biological theory, but I have another theory too.

Intense salt cravings can be a symptom of an underlying medical condition such as an adrenal insufficiency.  Salt cravings can also mean your body is lacking something that it thinks it can get from salt, such as certain minerals that are found in salt.  But wait, there are minerals in salt?  Well that depends on the kind of salt.  Regular table salt has been processed to remove its natural minerals.  Therefore, if you are craving minerals, processed salt will not fulfill what the body desires.  Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.  Beyond the Shaker Pure Foundation Salts such as Himalayan Pink and Murray River contain naturally occurring minerals that the body associates with salt.

I have yet another theory why we crave salt.  Because it makes our food delicious!  Many of us live in a bland, underseasoned world.  What we crave perhaps isn’t salt, but rather the bright, vibrant flavors that come alive to us when salt is used properly.  What we crave is chicken that tastes like chicken.  We want chicken that was raised on a farm, eating grass and seeds and bugs.  A chicken that is not only cooked properly but seasoned well to highlight its juiciness.  Salt is the light that illuminates those flavors.  Simple Fleur de Sel is enough, or you can elevate it to the next level with Hickory Maple or Chanterelle Vanilla.  What we crave is a tomato.  Not a mealy, watery red vegetable from the grocery store, but a beautiful, meaty, sun-ripened tomato that was grown in natural soil and raised with water and sunlight.  A tomato that has been seasoned with Murray River or Herb Garden Blend, perhaps splashed with a little aged balsamic vinegar.

Our cravings are a signal, a mental response to the bodies needs or desires.  Sometimes, they are biological.  But often they are more primitive.  The need, in fact the hunger, for something more, something better, something to satisfy both the palate and the soul.  Salt soothes the craving and nourishes the body.

I’ll admit it: I’m a sucker for fancy chocolates.  They’re just fun, compact little treats that bring a smile to my face and my stomach (assuming a stomach can ACTUALLY smile).

But it’s not just the pretty little treats you find behind the glass at your local candy shop..what I really like are the new wave of chocolate bars that are gracing the aisles of our favorite grocery stores.  I usually get my groceries at Whole Foods, and they have this amazing ability to draw me in like a moth to light with their displays of fun chocolate bars and other chocolate fare.  The labels are like sirens on the rocks, calling to me: 80% Cacao, Hazelnut, Mint—but in my latest visit, it was one siren’s song that finally drew me in: Dagoba’s organic chocolate with hemp, pumpkin and sunflower seeds and a touch of fleur de sel sea salt.

I had to get it.  How could I not?  How could I resist something like that? No way jose!

Dagoba has so many enchanting varieties of chocolate, and this one was no different.  The perfect balance of salt to sweet—that touch of fleur de sel sea salt is not lost on you at all.  It’s definitely there, filling out the nutty, chocolaty flavors.

It’s not decadent, though—it feels entirely nutritious in the most delicious kind of way.

I took a look at their website, and sure enough, they feel the same way about this little delight: Dark chocolate with omega-rich hemp seeds, heart healthy pumpkin and sunflower seeds, and a touch of Balinese sea salt. An energetic combination of power foods for body and mind in a base of our delicious 68% dark chocolate.

We have experimented a bit with salt and chocolate here at Beyond the Shaker, and we have found that Citrus Basil is incredible when lightly sprinkled on dark or milk chocolate. The citrus notes combined with sweet basil, really highlights the rich chocolate. In our taste tests, the other Beyond Blend that really teased out interesting depth of flavor from dark chocolate was the smoky sweet Hickory Maple blend. Again, we recommend only using a a touch of salt on the chocolate as you do not want to overpower the sweetness of the dark chocolate.

Other salts in our Pure Foundation collection that seem obvious for chocolate experimentation include Murray River, Sel Gris or Cyprus Black Lava (for light salinity, grey color and crunchy texture). If you are willing to be a bit adventurous (and yes, we will be trying these options soon), the following salts from our Beyond Blends collection may make the perfect pair for chocolate – Everest Wet salt, Truffle Wet Salt (oh yes), or Hot Habanero (heat and sweet are a great combo).

Ok, time to go find some chocolates of my own…

Foodies love to predict trends for the upcoming year – what chefs will serve in their restaurants, what the masses will cook at home. For the last decade, one trend continues: globalization and variety. Americans are becoming more adventurous and embracing cuisines from around the world. They are experimenting with exotic produce, fish, spices and seasonings at home. 2009 sees the increasing use of spices and seasonings inspired by international cuisine to bring some variety to our daily meals.

Try the following exotic blends and wet salts from Beyond the Shaker to shake things up!
-Hot Habanero Blend: Bring the flavors of Mexico to your kitchen with this blend that includes several types of chilis (including habanero) and cilantro for a burst of heat and flavor. Use of Hawaiian Black Lava and Red Alaea salts bring bountiful salinity, incredible texture, and a radiant color to the blend. Try it on snapper, chicken, tacos, salsa and more.
-Citrus Basil Blend: G’day mate! This blend uses Murray River salt and lemon myrtle, both hailing from Australia.  Combined with other organic citrus ingredients, this blend tastes great on chicken or any grilled white fish.
-French Herb Blend: Combining the best of France’s herbs from the Provence region (rosemary, thyme, basil, and lavender) with truffles and Fleur de Sel, recreate romantic cuisines with these timeless flavors reminiscent of the foods found on the coastline of France. Great on sole, poultry and in butter sauces. Put on your apron and channel your inner Julia Child.
-Everest Wet Salt: Using Himalayan Pink Salt, kafir leaves, lemongrass and wasabi, get a taste of Asia with this wet blend.  Great for lightly seasoning sushi fish, ahi tuna or even poultry, get ready to climb to new heights with your dining experience!