Introduction: Chalt - the Condiment for 2012 and Beyond

It is time for the antiquated dinner table reign of salt and pepper to be brought to an end. It is time to bring these pretenders together under the all encompassing power of Chili. Here I give you Chalt.

Okay, basically, I making pretty much every thing spicy but found that chili sauce can be a bit intrusive with certain dishes (for example it makes the milk go funny with your cornflakes). I also had a bit of time on my hands and had ordered to many scotch bonnet chillies than it was reasonably safe to use in one dish.

This is very straight forward but very effective. Great for using up a glut harvest of chillies.

Anyhows, here you go.

Step 1: Its Chili Time

Okay choose your chilies. for this mix I have used the fiery scotch bonnet chilies. They have a distinctive flavour and plenty of heat. As you can see in the picture I have used a fair few. Use your favourite. Take the stems off and chop roughly. Keep the seeds in for a real kick.

Get yourself some good quality sea salt. This will work with normal salt but I like to think we are doing something a little special here. Your ratio of chili to salt is up to you. I would say though that you want this to be chili flavoured salt rather than the other way round. To much chili could result in too much caking. If you want more heat get hotter chillies or use dried.

Step 2: Salt and Chili Time

Put your salt and chili in a frying pan and fry off over a low heat, Bit of a warning here though as the fumes can be a little noxious. No pain no gain. You are trying to take a little moisture out the mix here. Keep it mixing. You could equally well bake this mixture for safer cooking.

Step 3: Blend

Blend it all together. I used a stem blender but any blender will do. You should get a nice salty chili paste. Still a little moist though. Return to the pan on a low heat and fry on a low heat a little more to pull out as much moisture as you can.

Blend again and fill your salt grinder. The grinder means that even if it starts to cake, a good grind should get it all broken up again.

There you go Chalt. Great with everything.

My next iteration of Chalt is going to be dissolving salt in a heavy chili solution and then re-crystalising it. But until then this will keep me going.

Simple but effective.

(I added paprika, ground black pepper and cayenne to this for a little extra twist. I did this at the end and blended it one more time to mix)

It has been three months and my Chalt is still working great. the stuff that did not fit in the grinder was kept in a sealed Kilner jar.