There are some flavours I just can’t get enough of and celery is one of them. In stews, gravies and most of all in its most beguiling form: celery salt.
Something about the addition of salt that makes celery sing. I love it on poached eggs and it’s great in place of regular salt in savoury recipes.
Celery salt is really easy to make at home and it makes a superb addition to a homemade hamper. A little jar goes a long way so if you’re making for gifts you might only want to double this recipe.
Homemade Celery Salt
1 head of celery (one with leaves intact)
125g packet of sea salt (I like Maldon or Cornish Sea Salt)
Preheat the oven to 160°C
- Pick all of the leaves from your head of celery, rinse in a sieve and then dry thoroughly. They need to be dry when they go in the oven so they don’t steam.
- Cover a baking tray with baking parchment and lay out your leaves in a single layer.
- Place the tray in the oven to bake. You want to let the leaves completely dry out but avoid crisping or browning, with this in mind I check their progress every five minutes or so after they have been in for ten minutes.
- Once they are dried, remove them from the oven and allow to cool.
- Next you want to break down the majority (save a few small leaves for decoration) of the leaves to a coarse powder. I wizz my dried leaves for a minute in a mini processor but you could crumble or grind them.
- Mix them through your salt well and store in an airtight container.
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