In Praise of Shallot Salt

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I found this salt in a Penzey's catalog a little over a year ago. I bought a small bottle to try it and it blew my entire family away. The taste of this fine, powdery salt is unlike anything we have ever tasted. The delicate flavor of shallots dances ever so lightly on the tongue. (You will not believe how it transforms fresh corn on the cob...a little bit of butter...a little bit of shallot salt...a little bit of heaven.) It can be bought at any Penzeys retail store and it's also available online here: http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeysshallotsalt.html . I started playing around with it in different recipes and managed to score one that has become a family favorite:

Shallot Rice

2 cups of white rice

2 medium shallots, finely minced*

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons of butter

2 teaspoons shallot salt

2 1/2 cups of water


1. Melt butter in a small pot. Add shallots and stir until softened, about 3 minutes. Add rice, olive oil and  shallot salt. Stir to coat rice.
2. Turn burner on high and add water.
3. When water boils, turn burner to lowest setting. Cover pot and set timer for 15 minutes.
4. At 15 minute mark, turn off burner. Leave pot in place for another 15 minutes.
5. Uncover pot, fluff rice with a fork and serve.

*In lieu of shallots, you can substitute 2 tablespoons of dried chopped onion. If you do, just add all ingredients in number 1 and move on to number 2.