Food Network Star Anne Burrell's A Little Salty
Saw Anne Burrell -- star of Secrets of A Restaurant Chef and Worst Cooks in America -- doing a demo in Seattle this weekend. She was a hoot.
One of her pet peeves surfaced shortly into the entertaining program: "People are always saying I use too much salt," she said, tossing her favorite Kosher salt into pickled onions she later used in an imaginative salad. (Made with escarole and ground hazelnuts, Parmesan and flat-leaf parsley.)
Burrell encouraged the standing-room-only crowd to season and taste food while they're cooking: "If people tell me the dish is too salty, they haven't followed the instructions. You season while you're cooking, season to please your palate."
The crowd burst into applause.
I'm a huge fan of salt, have been for as long as I can remember. The reason salt gets a bad rap is because sodium shows up in so much processed food. It's easy to pile on the sodium when you don't know it's in there. Skip the processed foods, cook from scratch and you can season with abandon, Burrell told the appreciative crowd.
The samples of Chicken Milanese topped with the perfectly seasoned salad reinforced this good advice. Made me so happy that I keep a salt cellar by my stove. So much easier than shake-shake-shaking a shaker. Do you sprinkle or shake?
-- Leslie Kelly
Kate McDermott on September 25, 2010 at 09:15 PM
I'm a pincher!
Maggi on September 26, 2010 at 06:36 AM
I have a great little wooden measuring spoon its a 1/4 teaspoon( I received it in an order from Williams-Sonoma) and its wonderful for dispensing kosher salt. I never use a shaker.