Five DIY Food Gifts For Under $5

'Tis the season for giving! I am one of those people who loves to give.  It makes my heart happy to give.  One of my favorite gifts to give as well as receive is food.  Unlike most gifts food is useful, so you don't have to worry that your money will be wasted on a gift that will not get used.  If you make these you can avoid the chaos that is the mall, and spend a lovely stress free 20-30 minutes in an uncrowded grocery store.  Did I mention that you could skip going to the mall? Best of all, these gifts are delicious, but inexpensive, at about $5 per person or family they won't break the bank.

Coconut Kettle corn

This stuff is like inhaling air, it's light, salty, and sweet in all the right places!

Citrus powder

This can be sprinkled on fish, chicken, steak, veggies and rice, it will be the gift that keeps on giving months down the line.

Sour salts

Sour salts are in the pantries of some of the best chef's in the world, why not add one to your favorite chefs arsenal?

Marshmallows

'Tis the season for gifts and marshmallows.  These are way better than the high fructose laden, store bought version.  They're made with maple syrup, and lots of love!

Preserved Lemon Salt--How to make Sour Salts

Preserved Lemon Sour Salt

This blog has been a year in the making. Sour salts and the use of sour salts first caught my attention after reading an article in Bon Appetite Magazine about  how the chef at State Bird Provisions was using sour salts to brighten up dishes, and make use of an ingredients that would otherwise not get used.  His approach was simple, dehydrate something as simple as a preserved lemon, grind it into a powder, and boom you’ve created a flavorful salt without even trying.  After reading that article, I knew that I wanted to try making a preserved lemon salt.  I put it on my list of things to blog about, but never got around to it–it has been almost a year since I read that article! Of all the sour salts I have on my list to make, the preserved lemon sour salt has always intrigued me the most--that and a lime pickle salt--I love a good lime pickle! My first thought was to make my own preserved lemons and lime pickle.  But rather than make you all--and myself wait for me to make a preserved lemon, which would further prolong me making this sour salt, I thought  I'd just skip ahead a few steps and buy some preserved lemon's from my local Whole Foods. Christmas is just a few weeks away, and since I'm giving these salts away as gifts I cant wait to make preserved lemons from scratch.

Makes about 4 ounces of sour salt.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Drying time: 2hrs

Ingredients:

4 preserved lemons (sliced thinly)

Directions: Pre-heat oven to 150F if using an oven.  If using a dehydrator set it to 135F. Place preserved lemon slices evenly onto your dehydrator sheets, if using a stove,  spread over a wire rack set inside of a bake sheet.

Bake or dehydrate  until hard and brittle, it took about 1.5 hours in my dehydrator. Once slices are hard and crisp, transfer to a spice mill/ blender and grind until powdery,

Transfer the powder to an air tight container.

You've just created a gourmet salt.  You can sprinkle this on chicken, and fish.  Add it to my North African Lamb Stew, or to some grilled lamb chops, the possibilities are endless.