We’ve teamed up with Hayman’s Gin to create our very own ‘Maldini’ cocktail. Using their London Dry Gin, we’ve paired this with a Maldon Salt solution base, where you use water and salt together to create a balance to the drink.
Salt with Gin? We know this might surprise a few people, but did you know that the use of salt with alcohol actually enhances the sweetness and balances the bitterness of a dry gin! It really is delicious and makes a great cocktail for your guests at a dinner party.
Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice and stir for approximately 15 seconds until diluted.
Pour into a Nick and Nora or Martini Glass (chilled) and serve with cornichon on a cocktail stick.
Romy Gill creates the delicious Moong Bean Dal ahead of the Diwali festivities. Moong Bean Dal is a highly popular vegetarian dish and contains a bundle of nutrients and high protein.
Did you know the that Moong dal is the split version of the whole mung bean? When melting away in the pot whilst cooking, the bean retains a gentle softness and gives a whole vegetal and beany taste towards to the dish. Romy enhances this further through the use of adding tadka, where ground spices are heated in ghee and then mixed together with the Moong Beans.
Soak the lentils for couple of hours or overnight. Wash and drain the water from the soaked lentils.
Add the lentils to a medium-sized saucepan with Maldon Salt, turmeric and water.
Cook the lentils until soft for about 40 minutes on medium heat and occasionally stir.
While the lentils are cooking, we make the tadka. Heat the ghee in a frying pan, once the ghee has melted, add chopped spring onions and cook for 1 minute.
Add the grated ginger, chopped green chillies and cook for 3 minutes. Add the chopped tomato and chopped coriander into the pan and cook for another 4 minutes.
Lowering the heat, add yogurt and garam masala, combining well together. Add the tadka to the moong dal. Add the rest of the water to the pan.
Whilst mixing slowly together, cook on low heat for about 5 minutes.
Leave to rest before eating with any flat bread or rice.
Stem Broccoli is packed with nutrients and infused with the flavours of sweet and earthy goodness. Romy Gill shows how roasting this vegetable actually enhances the flavours, whilst also adding a crisp-tender texture to the dish. The broccoli is laid on a bed of creamy feta, which brings a briny, tangy flavour to the dish.
The feta is easily creamed due to the cheese being made from sheep and Goat’s milk, which is much more softer than normal cheeses.
Preheat oven at 170C.
On a baking tray, add the stem broccoli and remaining ingredients, mixing them well together. Roast for 8-10 minutes.
For the creamy feta, crumble the feta in a food processor, adding in the ingredients until a fine paste is made.
Serve by spreading the feta on a large plate, and then place the roasted broccoli on top. Sprinkle with toasted almond flakes and a final generous pinch of Maldon Salt to elevate the flavours.
Join Romy Gill in creating these delicious roasted sweet potatoes, perfect to accompany her Hot and Spicy Whole Roasted Chicken.
Sweet potatoes are a great addition to a roasted chicken due to the sweet, earthy and nutty flavour that the wholesome root vegetable gives, elevating the spiciness of the chicken that Romy infuses. With a generous pinch of Maldon Salt, chilli flakes and garlic the seasonings will burst in flavour for the dish.
Preheat oven at 180C.
While the oven is getting hot, marinate the potatoes with Maldon Salt, pepper, chilli flakes, garlic granules and a good glug of olive oil.
Layer them on the baking tray and bake 40 minutes.
Serve with the whole roasted chicken.
The taste of a simple roast chicken can be very neutral and bland at times. Romy Gill has elevated this classic dish with the warming spices of tandoori masala and chilli powder to give a real kick of flavour to the chicken.
To pair with the spicy chicken, Romy also serves sweet potatoes, roasted whole to give a gentle sweetness to the dish with a hearty salad to go with it.You can find the recipe for the sweet potatoes here.
In bowl add tandoori masala; chilli powder, Greek yogurt, grated garlic cloves, honey, thyme stems, half the juice of a lemon, oil and Maldon Salt, whisking it together. Then apply the paste to the whole chicken evenly, leaving it in the fridge to marinate for at least 2 hours before roasting.
After 2 hours, take the marinated chicken out and leave it to rest under room temperature whilst the oven is getting hot. Preheat the oven at 180C.
Place the chicken on a baking tray and cover the chicken with a foil, making sure to seal the tray with the foil on all the sides properly.
Put the chicken in the oven and cook for 1 hour, 30 minutes. Leave to rest for 10 minutes before eating.
Serve with roasted sweet potatoes and a leafy salad.
Romy Gill creates the comforting dish of lemon rice paired with peanuts and curry leaves. Using pantry staples, this dish holds authentic Indian flavours whilst also being very easy to make for your guests. Romy adds peanuts to the rice to give a crunchy texture to the dish, whilst also adding curry leaves for a gentle aroma.
In a saucepan, add water and ½ tsp Maldon Salt, bringing it to boil for 6-7 minutes on medium heat. Drain the water and keep the rice aside.
In a pan dry toast the peanuts on a low heat. Toast them until light brown.
Remove them from heat and add to a bowl. In the same pan add ghee. Once the ghee has melted, add the mustard seeds and curry leaves.
Add in the toasted peanuts, Maldon Salt, turmeric, and mix together. Cook with a lid for 5 minutes on low heat.
Once all done, add the lemon juice, mix and serve hot as a side dish or on its own.
Griddling leeks is a wonderful way to enhance the sweet flavours by adding a smoky, charred element. This pairs perfectly with a Romesco – which is a sauce originating from Catalonian Spain made from red peppers, almonds and zingy garlic, vinegar, and chilli. Labneh is simply strained, salted yoghurt – wonderfully simple to make but adds creaminess and sourness to this plate. Topped with a nutty savoury granola using homemade Dukkah, which adds crunch and toasted saltiness.
Make the labneh a day ahead. Mix the yoghurt and salt in a bowl and then place in some muslin tied with string. Squeeze out any excess liquid and then place in the fridge in a sieve over a bowl overnight. The bowl will catch the drained excess liquid – the longer you leave it, the thicker your labneh will be.
Make the Romesco sauce – toast the almonds in a dry pan until golden, set aside to cool. Add some roasted red peppers from a jar to a food processor along with the toasted almonds, Maldon Salt, garlic, sherry vinegar, parsley and paprika and blitz to a paste. Drizzle in the olive oil, add plenty of seasoning and blitz again. Set aside.
Make the dukkah savoury granola – Place some hazelnuts, pistachios and sunflower seeds on a tray and roast in the oven for 10 minutes. When they are golden brown remove from the oven.
Take a frying pan and toast your spices and Maldon Salt – cumin, coriander and fennel seeds. Once they are fragrant and beginning to pop, remove from the pan and crush in a pestle and mortar. Toast the sesame seeds in the pan and then add these to the crushed spices in a bowl. Roughly chop the hazelnuts, sunflower seeds and pistachios and add them to the bowl along with some salt and smoked paprika. Set aside to cool.
Heat a griddle pan on high. Slice the leeks in half and brush with oil. Griddle them for 5 minutes on each side until they have char lines and are soft and tender.
On a large platter, spread the labneh on the bottom. Pile up the griddled leeks on top. Spoon over some of the romesco sauce and then drizzle with oil. Sprinkle across your savoury dukkah mix, some final parsley leaves and serve.
Wanting to taste vibrant, citrus notes to your cocktail? We’ve paired up withHayman’s in using their Exotic Citrus Gin, giving the Salty Dog a burst of flavour with a sharp twist of grapefruit and lime juice. We have also included our very own Maldon Salt rim to enhance the flavour of of the exotic fruit peels.
Why add a salt rim to your cocktail? Not only does it keep your garnish from falling into your cocktail and throwing the flavour off, but it adds flavour to the drink, allowing it to develop in stages. Did you know the taste of isolated salt can actually awaken your taste buds! Therefore this allows you to enjoy the variety of flavours within your cocktail…science and delicious!
Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass with ice and stir.
Shake and strain over ice in a Rock’s Glass.
Garnish the drink with a Maldon Salt rim and a slice of grapefruit.
Start this recipe the day before you want to eat as the steak needs overnight brining. Up to 24 hours ahead is fine. You can also cook this steak in the oven and on the hob if you don’t have access to a barbecue.
When it comes to cooking the steak, you apply the same principles as below, but take the low part of the cooking in the oven – around 100C in a fan oven for as long as it takes to get to the temperature you are looking for. See the numbers you need within the recipe. The sear part can happen in a very very hot frying pan, just flipping and turning to get maximum Maillard reactions until it is cooked how you like to eat it. Again, whether to rest or not is a personal preference.
Begin by dry-brining the ribeyes. Please do it, it really makes the biggest difference (see more detail on why below) . Simply sprinkle Maldon Salt over both sides of the steaks, place on a rack set over a tray and slide into the fridge for 12-24 hours. The rack allows the air to circulate so the steak doesn’t swim in its own juices. Allow a good tablespoon or so of Maldon Salt per kilo of meat. Don’t cover the tray, you want the surface to dry out a little but do make sure the tray is on the bottom shelf of the fridge and not touching any other food.
When you are ready to cook, fire up your barbecue ready for slow indirect cooking, aiming for a gentle temperature of around 120°C.
Set the steak, always straight from the fridge, onto the grill bars far away from the fire, and shut the lid. Cook using very gentle convection heat, take the steak up to a temperature 10°C below the temperature you want to eat it at. A temperature probe is essential here. No need to turn or rotate, just let it very gently do its thing. It will look dry and unappetising at this point, never fear. The drying of the surface is going to work in your favour, allowing for the Maillard crust to build up during the sear.
Whilst the steak is having the low and slow treatment, get everything else ready.
To make the walnut and tarragon pesto, tip the walnuts into a small fireproof frying pan and toast over a medium heat on the hob for a couple of minutes. Add to a food processor along with the tarragon, garlic, olive oil and white wine vinegar and blend to a smooth paste. Season to taste with Maldon Salt and freshly ground black pepper and scoop into a bowl. Set aside.
Prepare the salad by chopping up the tomatoes and dividing onto a plates or a serving platter. Scatter over herbs and drizzle with a really generous glug of extra virgin olive oil. Season well with sprinkles of Maldon Salt to taste. Set aside at room temperature for maximum flavour.
Back to the steak – once it’s reached your chosen temperature you want get your barbecue really good and hot, so get those coals glowing red. I often start another little chimney of charcoal at this point if I feel it needs more heat. And get those bottom vents open wide – remember that more air means a hotter fire. Don’t worry about the top vents as you sear with the lid up.
When your fire is hot, get the steak directly on the hot grill bars over the fire. Sear it hot and fast, flipping every 30 seconds or so with the lid up. Every time you turn, try to place it back on a slightly different bit of the grill bars to get maximum heat.
Once the steak has a deep, mahogany brown crust on both sides and has reached your desired eating temperature, get it off and slice up to share, serving the salad and pesto alongside.
Top TipsBy Genevieve Taylor:
Brining is the number one trick to boost meat tenderness
Salt is amazing: a little water-soluble molecule (sodium chloride or NaCl if you’re a bit of a science nerd like me) that has the ability to amplify the flavour of everything. Salt makes things taste better – your roast pork more porky, your ribeye steak more beefy or your curry more deliciously spicy – but it also has rather more miraculous properties than just enhancing flavour.
All meat benefits from the application of salt to increase juiciness and I have got into the habit of salting, or brining, all my meat before I cook it, regardless of the cut or species. It is, however, especially effective when you want to cook the perfect steak. Good steak is a treat and it really pays to cook it as well as you can.
With dry-brining, when you sprinkle salt over meat it quickly draws out a little water from the muscle cells, creating a really concentrated salty brine on the surface. Over time this salty brine soaks back into the meat by a process called diffusion. Nature always wants to seek equilibrium – so the more salty outside diffuses into the less salty inside, doing its darnedest to make things equal. When you salt meat, it physically breaks the protein bonds that hold the muscle cells together in a tight bundle so over time the tight bundle becomes a much looser bundle. By disrupting the bonds between muscle fibres they cannot physically contract up as much once that meat hits the heat, so less of the water inside gets squeezed out. The result? Juicer meat with the flavour ramped up to the max.
How to dry-brine
Dry-brining is ridiculously easy and quick. Simply sprinkle Maldon Salt all over the meat and set the onto a rack hung over a tray, slide into the fridge, uncovered, and leave undisturbed while the salt does it magic. The rack allows air to circulate and prevents the meat from resting in its own juices. A rough rule of thumb is to use a level tablespoon of Maldon Salt per kilo of meat. I try to leave the meat brining for 12-24 hours as standard, but even a couple of hours is worth doing if you are short of time. There’s no need to wash the salt off after brining. In fact I would encourage you not to as the salt will have slightly dried out the surface and a dry surface results in more effective Maillard reactions.
Maillard reaction, and why we don’t want perfect grill bar marks
The Maillard, or browning, reaction is a chemical chain reaction sequence that creates hundreds of new flavour molecules. It is why steak with a glorious crisply seared crust will always taste infinitely better than steak that is floppy, pale and grey-looking. While we may have been led to believe that perfect grill bar marks on our steak are the end goal, if evidence of the Maillard reactions is shown by browning on the surface, it almost goes without saying that grill marks are 100% not the aim here. You are only allowing the browning reaction to happen where the marks are, all the unmarked bits don’t get the insane flavour boost Maillard gives you. The more browning, the more flavour and an evenly browned crusty outer is the goal rather than the neat parallel lines mirroring your grill bars. Constant turning and flipping your steaks over a very high heat is the way to get an even crust.
Why reverse sear?
I prefer to cook thick steaks to share; it’s easier to nail the internal temperature vs crust conundrum, i.e. max sear on the outside, minimal chance of overcooking the inside. And I like the spirit of generosity it’s served in; a sharing dish always feels like a more friendly way of eating, offering an edible gift to those I love. Sharing steaks are always best cooked used a brilliantly failsafe technique called ‘reverse sear’. The weight of steak is irrelevant as you are cooking to temperature and so this technique is identical whether you are cooking a 500-600g steak for two or a 1-1.2kg steak for four. You do need an instant read thermometer, such as a Thermapen, for this technique but they are such useful things for all meat cooking I think they are a worthwhile investment.
With the reverse sear technique you flip the traditional way of cooking steak on its head, so instead of searing hot and fast, then moving to a cooler spot to finish cooking, you start very cool and finish very, very hot indeed. The result is a steak cooked to equal perfection from the outside to the centre, with a glorious deep brown crust all over.
Heat energy from the fire of your barbecue excites the molecules on the outside of the steak and those molecules transfer the heat into the centre of the meat. By starting your cook very slowly that heat transfer happens evenly, so your steak will be the exact same temperature on the outside as it is in the middle. Call it the fire cook’s equivalent of sous vide, if you like. The danger with starting high and finishing cooler is that you overdo the outside while trying to get the inside done as you like it, so the outside layer of a steak can be dry and overcooked. Reverse sear gives you, the cook, the chance for gentle equilibrium from top to bottom, resulting in a juicer steak with a better crust.
What temperature to cook to?
Ribeye steaks have a generous nugget of tasty fat in the centre, and whilst I like rare steak, the ribeye is a good cut to take a little further, perhaps to medium rare or medium to render the fat melting and succulent. But by all means eat it rare if you prefer.
With the reverse sear method you cook the steak low and slow to 10C below the final eating temperature, then to sear it very hot and fast until you have the temperature you want to eat it at.
Follow these temperatures when cooking:
Rare – cook to 42C low and slow, then take to 52C with a hot and fast sear
Medium rare – 46c initially, then 56C to eat
Medium – 50C followed by 60C
Why I don’t bother to rest steak
I always prefer to cook steak to the temperature I want to each it at and eat it as quickly as possible after getting it off the grill. The reason being that meat carries on cooking once off the heat and resting, but the rate of carryover cooking is rather variable – is it a hot summers day, or rather cool and chilly, or a humid damp day? These things have a big impact on carryover cooking meaning it can be impossible to judge when to remove it from the grill. The good news is, with dry brining, I guarantee your steak will be juicy and succulent straight from the grill.
Genevieve Taylor: Seared – The Ultimate Guide to Barbecuing Meat
Buttery chilli roasted nuts dressed broccoli…I mean, it sounds as good as it tastes! The crunchy almonds and well-cooked broccoli are a perfect match. It’s great to put down on the table as part of a meal, or equally served as a main. I like to eat this with plain boiled brown rice, not very heavily seasoned, as all the flavour and punch come from the buttered almonds. It is also really quick to bring together if you are pressed for time.
Trim about 2-3cm off the tough woody end of the stalks and quarter the broccoli heads through the stalks. Heat the oil in a large frying or sauté pan with a lid. Or use a baking tray to cover. Place the broccoli, cut-side down, in the pan and sprinkle in a good pinch of Maldon Salt. Cover and cook for 5 minutes over a medium-high heat. Alternatively, roast the broccoli in the oven. Place on a baking tray and roast for 10-15 minutes at 220C.
When the broccoli has started to brown, turn on the other cut side and cook, covered, for a further 5 minutes or so.
Turn on the final floret side and cook, covered, for a further 5 minutes. A knife should easily pierce the stalks at this stage. If not keep cooking, rotating the sides until done. Remove the broccoli and set aside.
Wipe any excess oil from the pan with kitchen paper. Melt the butter in the pan until foaming. Add the almonds and cook, continuously stirring, over a medium heat for 5 minutes until golden. Add the parsley and chilli flakes and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat. Add a good sprinkle of Maldon Salt.
You can cut each broccoli segment into three or four smaller chunks, or leave as they are. Place in a bowl and spoon over most of the almond mix. Toss to coat well. Place on a platter and finish with the remaining buttery almond mix.
