happy holidays

from your pals at Secret Stash

vanilla salt

Due to numerous requests, we're bringing back the vanilla salt for a limited edition run!  The small batch packaged to 32 jars and 45 salt samplers. 

We love vanilla salt on white fish, such as pan-seared scallops or halibut poached in butter.  It works magic on summertime cherries, peaches, and fresh fruit with cottage cheese.  Cookies flecked with crunchy flakes of delicate vanilla make chocolate chips sweeter than life, and just right. 

 We expect this small run to go quickly.  Our first stop will be the Queen Anne farmers market this Thursday the 24th, from 3-7pm.

If you can't make the farmers market, we'll be at the Redmond sidewalk sale and art festival this weekend:  Friday.Saturday.Sunday.  10am-7pm.  

Swing by to sample vanilla salt sprinkled atop mascarpone! 

we appreciate you

It's Customer Appreciation day [until this Friday, May 21st]: buy any jar of salt and as a 'thank you,' receive a free 1 oz. salt sampler of your choice!

This year, our most popular salt samplers have been:  almond cardamom, bloody mary, lavender rosemary, and chorizo.  To take advantage of the offer:  just write which salt sampler you'd like in the 'message to the sender' box when you check-out through PayPal, and we'll include it with your order.

Our almond cardamom salt also just won an award from the NASFT [National Association for the Specialty Food Trade].  We're over the moon to snag a Silver medal for Best Flavor Enhancer!  The next round of judging is in June, where we'll be going for the Gold!  *fingers crossed*

Competition was tough, with 1,570 entries across 31 categories.  The judging feedback was based upon the following criteria: 1 denoting 'poor,' while 5 is 'excellent.'
 

Our almond cardamom salt scored:

Quality:  5

Innovation:  4

Packaging:  4

Ingredient profile:  5

Pricing:  5

Judge comments:  wow.

'spring garden' spirit

*photo taken by Matthew (@suomynona on Twitter)
Been to Art Restaurant at the Seattle Four Seasons yet?  We never need an excuse to go, but if you haven't, their counter uncorked events and all-you-can-eat $12 cheese nights are as generous as restaurants come. 

Already been, and just want to imbibe?  Their newest cocktail, the 'Spring Garden' is rimmed with our best-selling salt, lavender rosemary.  Rumor around town is that their cucumber margarita is just as delicious.    

Spring Garden

1 oz Dry Fly gin

1.5 oz sauvignon blanc

.25 oz Pernod

.25 oz green Chartreuse

.25 oz tyku

.75 oz lemon juice

.5 oz lavender simple syrup

5 large mint leaves (cut into chiffonade)

purple pansies ("johnny jump ups")

lavender rosemary sea salt

1.  Rim highball glass with salt.

2.  Combine all liquid ingredients and mint strips over ice in mixing glass.  Shake gently. 3.  Garnish with salt sprinkled flowers.

homemade sourdough bread

I am lucky. A sourdough starter landed in my hands. Passed along by a good friend, the starter was born from the hand of baker. And her seckle farmers market pear.  I don't remember the last time I made bread. But I know it was with my mom, and that a clunky, awkward counter top bread-maker played a role.

This was different. The 'biga,' short for Italian sourdough starter, is sweeter and nuttier than traditional starters. And so the journey began, and grew. I fed my biga daily. As instructed, I added a 1.5:1 ratio of bread flour to water, and 'beat the hell out of it' every day. I coddled my biga for more than a week.

I won't lie. My hands got tired; my wrists hurt. I thought about bright red artisan mixers sitting atop counters, and assumed that others must have had them to help. I wanted that bread, and thought about it every day I beat the hell out of it. "Tonight, we will have bread with dinner," I said, before reading instructions that said 'let it rest, bubble, and refrigerate over-night.' The biga seemed far way. Truth be told, I don't like to follow recipes.

Recipes inspire me. But I thrive on improvising upon an idea, a biga, or a recipe that catches my eye. Yet, and like baking, it's a science. Measuring ingredients by weight, and with a scale makes a difference. I'm glad I waited for my biga to grow up.

I made 3 loaves from it. Each made me appreciate, and re-acknowledge, the process that goes into homemade goods. The toil, the craftsmanship, the love.  I can't wait to make another.

Notes

* For the recipe, cooklocal has the scoop.  I followed it to the T.  As instructed, I added cumin.  I winged it by tossing in a heaping tablespoon of apple 5-spice salt.  Almond cardamom salt was my second choice. 

** Thank you for your generosity, Jenifer.  And for inspiring me.

bacon bloody mary

          Art restaurant's Olympic cocktail menu debuts today at the Four Seasons in Seattle. The silver medal is rimmed with one of our favorite cocktail salts, smoked chipotle. If you can't belly up to the bar at Art restaurant to try the gold medal, take solace in the fact that you can re-create the silver in the comfort of your home.  Or you can swing by Ventana restaurant for a sip of the real thing.

The Silver

1.5  oz bacon infused vodka

.5  oz house spice mix

3  oz tomato juice

celery stalk

strip of applewood smoked bacon

smoked chipotle sea salt

1.  Add vodka, spice mix, and tomato juice to a mixing glass with ice.  

2.  Roll gently and pour into a highball glass rimmed with the smoked chipotle salt.  

3.  Garnish with celery and bacon. 

salt special

Twitter offer today:  buy any 3.5 ounce salt, and get a free equal size jar of cherry pistachio salt. Woot!

Scaling down the line

We made our last batches of pineapple cumin, cherry pistachio, apple 5-spice, and soy salt.  I'm sorry to see them go despite having a blast trying to blow through each.  We imbibed in margaritas rimmed with pineapple cumin salt last night (arbol chilies lent the heat).  

This week?  Salted sugar cookies with cherry pistachio and apple 5-spice.

The salt fairy in me adores the umami of soy.  It's the indecisive part that can't decide where to sprinkle the dust next. Duck, chicken, pork, brussel sprouts, potatoes, black cod, sole? 

Pork belly or chop, it'll be.     

Fancy Food Show, San Francisco

Twice a year, the Fancy Food Show comes to town. It's a hub for North America's largest specialty food and beverage marketplace. San Francisco hosts the show in January, while New York trails in June. We're excited about having a booth at the San Francisco show this year.

It'll be a first for our flavored salts.

We're hoping to make new friends, share salt, and mingle with attendees. If you plan to be in town too, we'd love to meet you! We'll be at booth #2515 in the south hall.

Details:

35th Winter Fancy Food Show

Moscone Center

747 Howard Street

San Francisco

January 17-19th, 2010