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.

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Tags: chirstmas food ideas, christmas gift ideas, food, food photography, homemade christmas gift ideas, inspiration, photography, recipes, red wine salt, red wine sea salt, red wine sea salt recipe, what to do with left over red wine

• December 4, 2013
• Food Photography, Recipes
• 30 Comments