The sea, the sea.

  Before we carry on with the ongoing salty saga, just a quick reminder of what it's all about. A while ago I started talking about the idea that a lot of food is basically bulk but not that tasty. Things like bread, pasta and potatoes are good examples of this and as an illustration, imagine eating a bowl of macaroni or mash with nothing added. In a word, blech!

  The idea of highlighting this was to get you think about how the real heroes of your kitchen cupboards are the cheeky little flavours that lurk in the shadows, and when deployed judiciously, transform the pile of blech to an amazing flavour explosion. We got up to looking at saltiness in it's many forms and that's where we will pick up.

No, I'd never seen a backgammon board like this either.

  Though salt and soya sauce got a post to themselves, the rest are going to get thrown together so we can move on. Quite simply, if you think about it you can name a lot of salty foods but you may not have thought of using them to flavour other foods. Olives are one great example and the puttanesca sauce uses them to perfection. Puttanesca is a spicy tomato sauce that gets used to dress pasta very effectively and it contains loads of black olives that salt the dish perfectly.

  Anchovies are another. Capers do the job well and let's not forget parmesan. Though these all bring a different style of saltiness, they make an excellent team when it comes to seasoning the crisp creaminess of a Caesar salad. I have a feeling you're starting to get the picture now. Another example? No problem.

  To finish the subject of salty let's round up with the august and thoroughly unassuming paste that hides quietly out of the way, known only as miso. Miso comes in a number of varieties and the best clue to the flavour is in the colour. The darker the paste, the stronger the flavour. It's a risk to call its salty flavour sophisticated but I'll do it anyway. Buy a tub and see what you think but I've a couple of tips. Firstly, as it's very thick it's difficult to incorporate it so dilute it a bit first using whatever you're going to add it to. Next, as it's teeming with live (and healthy) bacteria, don't heat it too much, just add it at the end and serve. Tomorrow, more flavours.

Kirk out

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