sriracha salt

i box myself in. a lot.

i made the sriracha because

we like sriracha. because i wanted

to make something instead of buying

it in the store. i made it as an experiment.

but, if i'm being honest, bottles of sriracha

that we buy spend a long time in the fridge

before they're finished.

but, then. i did it anyway.

i made a huge quantity of a sauce

that says it's best used within one month.

i'll admit, i tend to ignore those time frames,

often viewing them more as suggestions,

than an absolute rule. but still - i was nervous.

i had a lot of sriracha.

so, i searched out recipes.

i found two that were intriguing - one

for a cheddar bread that is swirled with

sriracha and a second that didn't even involve

an oven or a stove: sriracha salt.

i haven't made the bread yet.

but, the next morning, while larry was

making the coffee, i pulled out a baking sheet,

parchment paper and salt. larry and erin, who

had spent the night, looked at each other.

they clearly were worried. i think they were

imagining an elaborate sunday morning breakfast

that they would not actually get to eat until

well into the afternoon.

i promised them that it wouldn't be bad

and that it would be over quickly. i begged

larry to keep making the coffee.

i placed the salt in the bowl and from there,

erin took over. she added sriracha, stirred

it into the salt and then spread it onto

the parchment-lined baking sheet with

much more patience than i would ever have.

and that was it.

i placed it on the side of the kitchen,

stirring it probably three times over three days.

the first two times, i worked to break up a few

of the clumps that had formed.

when the salt was completely dry,

i transferred it to an air tight container.

have i used the salt?

once - in three weeks.

the irony is not lost on me.

sriracha salt

adapted from the sriracha cookbook via epicurious.com

i loved the idea of this and if you don't mind the fact that you'll have a sheet pan sitting out in your kitchen for a couple days, it's a fun recipe to try. i wish that the sriracha flavor was more pronounced. every once in a while, when weirdly tempted to try it, i get a spicy grain. But otherwise, the infusion is, what i would call, mild. the grains are, however, quite a pretty pink color.

1/2 cup kosher salt

5 teaspoons sriracha

in bowl, stir together salt and sriracha. on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spread into as thin of a layer as possible. let sit, stirring once or twice, for one to two days, or until completely dry. when i stirred, i broke up the small clumps that had formed.

store in a small airtight container.