Salt is glorious mineral. Set it upon a bland dish and it will root around that blandness, find something interesting, and report it back to your tongue. With a good dish it's even better. It gathers all the flavors that are already popping and gooses them a couple notches higher—the sweets become sweeter, the umami deeper. It’s no coincidence that anywhere people eat, you find salt.

So we decided to see what we could do to test the mineral's versatility. The idea of blending salt with wine comes from John Eisenhart, chef of Pazzo Ristorante in Portland. His vino of choice is a white variety called Gewürztraminer, but he also approves of tannin-heavy wines like Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon.  If salt’s strength is that it plumbs the depth of complex flavors, then there’s perhaps nothing better to pair it with than wine, a beverage so deep and reticent that entire careers have been devoted to unraveling it.

With that in mind, I grabbed an old bottle of red from the Guy Gourmet test closet and went to work. The result braces the salt between layers of sweetness and red wine acidity. It’s a fantastic complement to an heirloom tomato, and I could just as easily imagine it dusting a thick hunk of watermelon or a bowl of sliced strawberries. It would also make a pretty righteous brine for a pork chop or an accent to a soft cheese. If you discover any other surprising uses, let us know. We never turn down a good food tip.

Red Wine Sea Salt
Recipe from John Eisenhart

You'll need:
2 cups red wine
¾ cup coarse sea salt
1 cup sugar
8 springs thyme, chopped
2 strips lemon zest, finely chopped

How to make it:
1. Pour the wine into a saucepan and place over medium heat. Reduce it by half half and turn the heat to low. Continue reducing until you’re down to 2 tablespoons. Set aside to cool.
2. Combine course sea salt, thyme, lemon zest, and wine reduction in a food processor and pulse until the blend is homogenized and has the consistency of table salt.
3. Spread the mixture on a sheet pan to dry overnight at room temperature.

 

Via: Make Your Own Red Wine Sea Salt