When someone mentions pink salt, I tend to always think about the curing sort, with sodium nitrite.  But finishing salts do come in all colors – black, pink, red, grey – and this pink salt I happened to pick up while I was exploring Peru.  A lot of times during my spice stories I talk about unique ingredients and their extraordinary flavor.  This salt I wanted to share with you more for the story and the experience it represented for me, less for its individual influence on cooking.

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It feels like over the last few years, Americans have gotten really smart about the health benefits and cooking of quinoa (and, in reality, about a lot of the ancient grains / foods that are showing up in supermarkets).  Quinoa, in particular, has gotten a lot of attention because it’s a complete protein source, high in fiber and minerals and is gluten-free.  The “pseudograin” is actually native to the Andes and a big part of the diet out there, so while I was in Peru a few weeks back, I was a bit obsessed with learning traditional quinoa recipes.

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This week, I came across an ingredient that has quickly become one of my favorite new foods – a smoky, heady dried fruit that had my mind racing for different ways to use it!  Although I tend to work on more of the modern dishes for Junoon, I decided to take a step back and focus on researching and developing a recipe for a traditional curry from the south of India, a Kerala shrimp curry.  From my experience in Goa and in cooking Indian cuisine, I knew about kokum and tamarind as souring agents but had never heard about kodampuli, a smoked, dried fruit that’s used almost exclusively in the Kerala region.

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