Celery salt

Our first head of celery was finally ready to harvest and we ate the sticks as a base for shepherds pie and braised with some chard with garlic and thyme.

The leaves lend themselves very well to drying and so make a very nice homemade celery salt with a much better colour and flavour to any shop bought variety.

First pick and wash the leaves and dry out in a salad spinner.

Then put the leaves on a baking sheet and cover with a rock or flakes salt (Maldon is always good)but we actually used Cornish sea salt.

Stick the tray in an oven at about 90 degrees centigrade and leave for hours. When the leaves are crumbly when you rub them between your fingers they ary dry enough.

Now take the leaves and a small amount of the salt (this helps the leaves break down) and blend to your desired size. With this batch we left the pices quite large for an extra celery flavoured bite.

Mix the leaves back into the rest of the salt and stick in a container till your ready to use.

Have with eggs, sprinked on meats or roasted veggies.