The magic of wine and salt
Friday, 04 November 2011 00:00
It’s amazing to think that there are about 160 different types of salt worldwide, yet in South Africa not even one third of them are available. But thanks to chef extraordinaire Craig Cormack, who is fast becoming known as our very own ambassador for this essential culinary ingredient, more and more exotic salts are slowly making their way across the ocean, meticulously sourced by the man who has made it his passion to educate people and demonstrate salt’s versatility and numerous uses.
At a lunch held recently at the Bergkelder in Stellenbosch, Craig showed that a whole meal can be built around salt and also, that despite its difficulty with pairing up with wine, it is possible to team with the correctly made dishes. “I find more and more people are fascinated by salt,” he commented, in an introduction to the fine meal, in which a wooden “panel” of salts was presented to sample. He added:
I hope to be the first in pairing food and wines with different salts; these dishes have been designed for a specific flavour and taste, not only to fit the flavour profile but also the wine. This is a challenge because as we know, salt dominates food, which in turn makes wine textures richer, and sometimes smoother. Salt can also cut through foods, sometimes giving the wine a flat taste, losing the flavours and making it insipid. It can also accentuate tannins and alcohol. Sweet wines can also be paired with salt. A taste sensation of saltiness is found on the front and the upper sides of the tongue.”
Fleur du Cap’s natural unfiltered white wines actually proved to be appropriate partners for a range of dishes that were nothing short of exceptional.
And if coarse sea salt summates to what you know about salt, think again. In order of sampling we tried Pakistani Kala namak, a volcanic salt; Khoisan flake sea salt; Persian blue salt – a “sedimentary” salt; a volcanic black lava salt from Hawaii; a pink sea/estuary salt from the Murray River in Australia; and red alea volcanic mud salt from Hawaii. All had very different flavour profiles and according to Craig, each has a different purpose from a “finishing” salt which is used to sprinkle on cooked food to salts which are best used to season during the cooking process.
With an almost encyclopaedic knowledge, Craig offered soupcons of information about salt throughout the meal.
Did you know, for example, that out of a staggering 14 000 uses for salt only roughly 17% are used for food alone; the rest for industrial and other processes?
And that out of so many salts worldwide, in South Africa we are still in the fledgling stages of salt production with 14 areas in total producing salt – from Agulhas to the Orange River. Aside from that well-known brand that begins with a C and now also produces sea salt, the most well known sea salt is probably Khoisan, which hails from the West Coast, just outside Velddrif. Driving along the R27 coastal highway you can see the salt pans from the road, and this innovative company produces a range of naturally flavoured salts as well as the salt in its pure form.
“We are more reliant on salt than ever,” Craig continued, in our short but fascinating lesson. “In the old days people were paid in salt and it seems we, or rather I, have gone full circle because I am getting paid in salt.”
With the 160 plus salts available worldwide, Craig has managed to source about 80, and as his interest has become known, more and more people are bringing him examples from around the world.
But on to the meal.
It opened with a simple but exquisitely flavoured cured salmon “sandwich” (Khoisan sea salt used to season it) – Craig’s take on an Asian favourite where supremely fresh salmon was formed into two squat cylinders on a longitudinal plate along with a sprinkling of micro greens and teamed with olive-dipped thin fingers of ciabatta.
Winemaker Pieter Badenhorst’s four-way blend of sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, viognier and semillon was a rich wine (“a selection of the best we have in the cellar”) that teamed well with the richness of the fish, as did the unfiltered chardonnay.
Much to my delight, Craig is evidently a chef who knows well enough to allow the flavours to do the talking and his dishes that followed were so simple yet so flavoursome that they were a pleasure to consume.
Red roman, encrusted in Oryx pan salt (from our shores) was oven-baked and then the salt jacket gently prised off at the final moment. Served simply with a “rustic side salad” the fish was tender and delicious, matched well with Fleur du Cap’s gently oaked unfiltered semillon.
From the fish-stocked dam to the table, you don’t get much fresher than having salmon trout delivered just up the road from Lourensford, earlier in the day. It was cured into what Craig termed a salmon “pastrami” with salt from the Algarve region of Portugal and served with a preserved lemon salad and cocotte (oval-shaped) potatoes.
The zesty, fruity unfiltered sauvignon blanc 2011 went beautifully with this dish – both offering what Craig termed as “clean flavours”.
When I commended him highly on the meal afterwards, he commented: “These are old dishes that I’m a giving a freshness to.”
In contrast to the simplicity of the previous three courses, the dessert was a little more complex, yet retained those pure flavours: a chocolate tart with a lemon grass ice cream. The ganache-based tart was gently sprinkled with a French Geurande sel gris (French grey sea salt) offering an interesting savoury enhancement and a foil to the richness of the chocolate. And Fleur du Cap’s Noble Late Harvest 2010 (botrytised chenin, semillon and Muscat de Frontignon) worked fantastically. “NLH is a very difficult wine to work with but the payoff is exceptional,” said Pieter.
A magician in the kitchen, another in the cellar. I’d say both are names to look out for as already many are beating a path to their doors.
Written by Norman McFarlane You are reading The magic of wine and salt articles
