KEY POINTS:
Many chefs say the two most important seasonings are salt and pepper. The trick is to use really good salt and freshly ground pepper, otherwise you may as well go back to boarding school.
We need salt to help us digest foods and turn them into living tissue,
and to help transmit nerve impulses that contract muscles. Our bodies contain almost 450g of salt and each day we need to replenish the amount the body uses to maintain health and vigour.
We all love designer salt crystals - Marlborough flaky sea salt makes you think you're eating fairy food. Because of their larger surface area, the pretty snowflakes cling to food better than standard salt, so you get this delicious crunchiness.
Flaky sea salt is simply evaporated seawater so it retains the natural minerals and trace elements our bodies need. Strangely, sea salt tastes less salty than the processed sort and has a softer, more rounded and non-chemical flavour - attributable to it being only 83 per cent sodium chloride.
Good sea salt takes on the flavour of food, never overpowering it and always enhancing it.
Our bodies do not need pepper for survival, but we do need to spice up our lives as surely as we need to put rouge on our lips and stilettos on our shoes. Humans seem to have always been in love with the sensation of smoky, black, spicy heat on the tongue. We learn this - we are not born with it - just as we learn how to like rotten food such as wine and cheese, bitter food such as coffee and sour food such as the pomegranate.
The first time I saw pepper growing in India I was fascinated because I had never given it any thought. Pepper, a vine, produces tiny red berries in clusters like little grapes. The berries turn black when laid out on the ground and dried.
A fabulous way to cook tuna and salmon steaks is to heat a heavy based frypan, throw in lots of sea salt, then place the fish on top and cook half way through (this is really easy to see on oily fish).
The Belgians scatter loads of black pepper on their steamed mussels and eat them with chips. The French eat strawberries doused in pastis and black pepper. Lavender salt adds a bit of the old je ne sais quoi to veal and is lovely in vinaigrettes. In Vietnam they dip grilled prawns in fresh lime and salt.
Try making an exotic fruit salad and serve with a pepper, tamarind and banana sauce. Schoc chocolates make a more-ish sea salt chocolate bar. Salt and pepper squid? Ooooo, and goat cheese grilled on little toasts with honey and red pepper.
How about a peppery Bloody Mary? Cheers New Year.
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Cantonese spiced salt squid with herb mayo
Serves 4
1 tsp salt
½ tsp caster sugar
300ml olive oil
1 cup assorted fresh herbs, such as flat-leaf parsley, basil, chervil
Fresh lemon juice to taste
1 part Szechuan peppercorns
2 parts sea salt
300g squid tubes, sliced
Olive oil
Watercress or rocket leaves
Lemon
1. To make the mayo, put the yolks, salt, sugar and herbs into the processor. Blend until smooth and then very slowly drip in the olive oil. Add lemon juice to taste.
2. In a pestle and mortar, add the peppercorns and salt, then grind.
3. In a frypan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the salt mix, stirring until fragrant, then add the squid. Toss for 2 or 3 minutes and then serve on watercress or rocket leaves with a dollop of mayo and a wedge of lemon.