Red Wine Sea Salt – a little treat for Christmas
It is officially the holiday season! Our Christmas tree is up, our first Christmas party is tomorrow night, our Christmas cookie baking day is next weekend, and it’s nearly time to take this years Christmas card photo. I am really excited about Christmas this year as I am receiving the best gift of all, spending time with my flesh and blood. My parents and sister are coming down to Melbourne for an extended visit. It’s the simple things about Christmas that mean the most, family, love, Christmas lights, laughter and good food.
We can all sympathise that this time of year is so busy, and any time that I do have has been spent working on two e-book projects that I have on the go at the moment. (There is a lot more work involved in putting one together than I expected! Maybe that is because I am a perfectionist, or just need to face the fact that I am not a graphic designer and get someone to do that bit for me.) So it may seem like it’s a little quiet over here at the moment – so today I thought I would share some little Christmas gifts I am making.
I volunteered at a charity event a few weekends ago and was for a lack of a better word, bartending. I brought home quite a few open red wine bottles thinking, I’ll do something with those. Well, Red Wine Sea Salt it is. It is a no-brainer to make, tastes and looks good and can be given as a gift in a little jar, decorated with some Christmas trimming.
Any red wine will do, and you can use any coarse sea salt. The finer the salt, the richer the colour. I used rock salt as I like the chunky look and the fact that when it is ground to go on top of food, it will become a lighter pink as the colour isn’t as rich in the larger granules. Smaller granules will also dry quicker.
Red Wine Sea Salt
Ingredients
3 cups red wine
1 1/2 cups sea salt (coarse or rock salt)*
Directions
In a saucepan over medium to high heat, bring the wine to a boil. Reduce the temperature and simmer until the liquid reduces to 1-2 tablespoons and is thicker and a little syrup like.
For every tablespoon of reduced wine, add 1 – 1 1/2 cups of sea salt. Add one cup first, stir and if the liquid hasn’t absorbed as well as you would like it to, add some more. Stir until completely covered. Lay out on a try overnight to dry.
Store in clean air-tight jars, add your favourite Christmas trimming and give as Christmas gifts.
*Notes
The finer the salt, the richer the colour. I used rock salt as I like the chunky look and the fact that when it is ground, it will become a lighter pink as the colour isn’t as rich in the larger granules. Smaller granules will also dry quicker. If you only have rock salt or large granules, blitz in a food processor before you add to the red wine.
thankyou racheljane! … what a good idea … it’s also using my very favourite colour!
you certainly deliver the goods with your beautiful photography!
love it! cheers m:)
You’re welcome Merilyn – it sure is a fabulous colour. I was definitely delighted when it turned out like this!
This sounds and look really interesting. I’m circuitous as to how it’ll taste cooked is something vs just atop let’s say a salad.
Cooked in***
It would go well on meats, tomato based pasta and desserts with require a little salt. I’ve been doing some reading and it looks like a real winner to accompany a marinade for read meats! I am making a rotolo with a tomato base and I will adding a little on top. Yum.
Woah, never heard of this before but anything with red wine in it is something I definitely have to try! Thanks for sharing.
It’s pretty neat isn’t it! There is this gorgeous little spice shop around the corner from my house and they do an amazing merlot salt. It is so easy to make.
Great post and gorgeous pic!
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Cool!
Stunning photos as always, Rachel Jane! I’m in the middle of learning how to shoot bokeh lights. Any tips like the first photo you shot? ~M.
What timing! I was shooting with a macro lens and about 1.5m (5ft) from the christmas lights. That shot was at f 3.2. It’s quite easy, just make sure the lights are at a distance and in the background and shoot at a wide open aperture, (your smallest number like 1.4, 1.8, 2.8). Play around the those two things and always make sure you have good light!
What a great idea. This is a great Christmas gift, indeed. I’ll try this out!!! And what adorable photos again!
Thank you so much for sharing!!!!
You’re welcome. It is such a lovely Christmas gift, I am excited to share it with my family.
Thanks so much for this tip! I’ll play with it and see how it turns out. You’re the best! ~M.
Reblogged this on Simple Style Finds and commented:
Very nice and. Unusual,,,,
Beautiful pictures and such an original gift idea! I am so in love with the ticket stub tags; can I ask where you got those? Happy Holidays!
Thanks so much! Aren’t they adorable. I got them from a large chain craft store by the name of Spotlight. I have made Christmas decorations out of them also which I’ll share when I do my Christmas photo.
Thank you! 🙂
Hi Rach, my Rach and I were looking for something cute for her wedding bomboneirie…looks like this will be just perfect for what she wanted, question….how long will it keep and where did you get the jars?
Oh, how fantastic! It should keep indefinitely, especially if stored in an airtight jar. I bought this jar at a vintage shop, was a little pricey as it is old, but you can get small nicely shaped jars at $2 shops or variety stores. If you need to make large batches, I would use smaller coarse sea salt granules so they dry faster. Mine has taken a few days, but it has been wet here in Melbourne. If you need any more tip email me! twolovesstudio@gmail.com. When is the wedding?
Thanks for the tip. I am going to try it.
Gorgeous place! I am visiting your blog first time and I am loving it! Love your photography – such a beautiful shots, you are an inspiration.
Thank you for your amazingly kind words! Inspiration is exactly what I aim to provide here at TLS. I am thrilled you have got a taste of that. Welcome!
Such a gorgeous little gift for the season and a fabulous use of those leftover charity bottles. Gorgeous photography as always.
I just love jars! The one in this shot is a vintage jar I bought at a bazaar. I can’t wait to give these gifts out.
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Just beautiful! I am definitely making this as Christmas gifts next week 🙂
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This is a wonderful idea! My friends will love this! Beautiful photos by the way – they’re incredible!
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