Homemade Celery Salt

This tasty homemade celery salt recipe takes advantage of the celery leaves by drying them out then grinding them with salt. It's easy and full of flavor!

Whenever I needed celery for a recipe (looking at you, chicken and sausage gumbo!) when I was first on my own and cooking in my own kitchen, I’d cut the leaves off and chuck them. After all, the recipe called for stalks of celery, which I assumed, naively perhaps, did not include the leaves. 

Then we moved overseas and in many countries celery was hard to get. Often imported from colder climates, it was also expensive. I learned to not only use the whole bunch, with leaves, but to chop and freeze any leftovers in a snug bag for future recipes. As long as you are going to sauté the chopped celery for a soup or stew, frozen works perfectly. 

Another great use for those leaves which make them (and their flavor) last a long time is homemade celery salt. Store-bought celery salt is made with celery seeds, which have a very strong flavor. Celery salt made with the dried leaves is a bit more subtle but the celery flavor it definitely prominent. And if, like young me, you were throwing out or composting the leaves, now you can feel good about using the whole plant!

Homemade Celery Salt

If you don’t have flakey sea salt, you can substitute regular salt but use half the amount or your celery salt may be too salty. I use a clean coffee bean grinder that I reserve for spices for this job but you could use a mortar and pestle or a blender. This recipe makes about 2 tablespoons of celery salt.

Ingredients 

1 cup celery leaves tightly-packed, 56g

1 teaspoon flakey sea salt (like Maldon) 

Method

Pick the leaves from the celery, leaving the stalks behind. Use both the outer dark leaves and the pale inner leaves. Rinse the leaves two or three times in a salad spinner, then spin them dry. 

Lay the leaves out on a clean towel then roll it up. Unroll and leave to air dry for at least 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 200°F or 93°C degrees. 

Line a baking pan with baking parchment or a silicone liner and arrange the celery leaves single layer in the pan. 

Bake 20 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking time so that the leaves dry evenly. Remove from oven and cool. 

Transfer to your coffee/spice grinder and add the salt.

Process until finely ground. Make sure it’s completely cool before storing in a sealed container or spice shaker.  

This homemade celery salt is excellent for any recipe that calls for celery salt. It’s also a tasty topping for boiled eggs and cream cheese filled celery sticks. Isn't it a pretty color?

Enjoy!

It's Sunday FunDay so today my friends and I are playing like Sesame Street. This post is brought to you by C for Celery! Check out all the celery recipes below. Many thanks to our host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. 

• Apple Celery Soup from Mayuri’s Jikoni
• Bacon, Celery, & Pecan Stuffed Celery from Amy’s Cooking Adventures
• Celery and Kale Paratha from Cook with Renu
• Celery Steak from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Gin and Celery Tonic from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Homemade Celery Salt from Food Lust People Love
• Pulled Chicken & Celery Sandwiches  by Sneha's Recipe
• Slow-Roasted Celery from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Stir-Fried Shrimp with Chinese Celery from Palatable Pastime

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Banana Jam Muffins #MuffinMonday

These banana jam muffins are made with homemade banana jam – so easy! – swirled through buttermilk muffin batter then baked to golden perfection. 

I was awake in the middle of the night last week, as I often am a few days before Muffin Monday when I don’t have a muffin planned. I ran through the options of 1. what I already own ingredient-wise and 2. what my family is most likely to eat. 

The bottom line is that sweet muffins are more popular than savory so I discarded thoughts of Boursin, cheddar and blue cheese. That left me with blackberries (which I used last month so never mind), raspberries, pears and bananas. Pretty sure I've baked muffins with each of those before and several with bananas.

And then suddenly a thought popped into my head: Can a person make ripe bananas into jam? Is banana jam even a thing? Yes, my middle-of-the-night brain is a weird and wonderful thing. Banana jam was the first thing I googled as soon as I got out of bed that next morning.

You’ve seen my title so you know it is a THING. I’m here to tell you that it’s also delicious. I only made enough for these muffins but next time I’m going to double or treble the recipe because it would be lovely spread on toast with peanut butter. If you decide to do that right now, (and I highly recommend you do) store it in a clean jar in the refrigerator. This banana jam is not acidic enough to be safe for very long as a canned jam. 

Banana Jam Muffins

The banana jam can be made ahead. Just store it in a clean vessel in the refrigerator until you are ready to bake. No buttermilk? Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice or white vinegar to your measuring cup then pour in the milk to the half-cup mark.  The jam recipe is adapted from one on FOOD52.

Ingredients

For the banana jam:

2 small ripe bananas (about 4.75 oz or 135g, post-peeling)

1/3 cup, firmly packed, or 66g light brown sugar

1 tablespoon lime juice

1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 tablespoon aged rum

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the 6 muffins:

1 1/4 cups or 156g flour

1/3 cup or 66g sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup or 120ml buttermilk

1 egg

1/4 cup or 60ml canola or other light oil

1/2 cup or 150g banana jam

Method

First, we’ll make the jam. Combine the bananas and sugar in a small pot. Before you put it on the stove, mash the bananas with a fork until the fruit is chunky and the sugar syrupy. 

Set over medium-low heat and bring to a simmer. Add the lime juice and salt. 

Continue to cook at a steady simmer - stirring occasionally - for about 10 minutes, until the jam thickens. When you can pull a spatula through it and the gap doesn’t run closed immediately, it’s done. 

Remove the bananas from the heat and stir in the rum and vanilla.

Set the banana jam aside aside to cool while you assemble your muffin ingredients and prepare the muffin pan.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 6-cup muffin pan by greasing it with oil or butter or lining it with paper muffin cups.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 

In a smaller mixing bowl whisk the egg, milk and oil together. 

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient bowl. Fold to combine. Do not over mix.

 Gently swirl in the banana jam.

Divide the batter between the muffin cups in your prepared pan. 

Q1. Did I over fill these cups? That depends on how you feel about very large muffin tops. Q2. Could you bake this batter into 7 or even 8 muffins? Absolutely. Should you? See question 1. 

I stand by my six muffin decision.

Bake the muffins in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden and a wooden skewer comes out clean. Yeah, they touch. Fight me. 

Remove from the pan after they’ve cooled a few minutes and put them on a wire rack to cool completely before storing in an airtight container. 

Enjoy!

It's the last Monday of the month so that means it's time for Muffin Monday! Check out the great muffin recipes we have for you today. 

• Banana Jam Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Cream Cheese Filled Red Velvet Muffins from Magical Ingredients
• Italian Herb Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Peanut Butter Banana Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Savory Breakfast Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Stuffed Cinnamon Streusel Muffins from Passion Kneaded

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

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Hobak Jeon - Korean Zucchini Pancakes

Hobak Jeon aka zucchini pancakes are a savory snack popular in Korean cuisine that are made with small pieces of zucchini in a thick batter and fried until crispy with a little oil. Dip them in a spicy sauce to complete this delicious dish!

When I was growing up, I only knew about two kinds of pancakes. The regular fluffy kind that was served with butter and syrup and the thin ones we ate sprinkled with lime juice and sugar. We called those crepes but my British friends and classmates in Trinidad called them pancakes. 

Who knew that there is a whole world full of other delicious pancakes out there! In fact, starting on 28 February, we celebrate Pancake Week, which includes Pancake Day on 1 March, also known as Mardi Gras or Shrove Tuesday. I’ve asked my Sunday FunDay friends to share their favorite recipes with you so you can join the festivities. Make sure to scroll to the bottom to check out the list. 

I must confess that hobak jeon are new to me and I found them originally on a Wikipedia list of international pancakes. Hobak means zucchini and jeon is pancake or fritter. Since then I’ve discovered that there are many varieties of jeon. They can contain meat or fish, diverse vegetables, even kimchi. Some look more like Japanese tempura – ingredients dipped in a batter - with vegetables sliced in large pieces rather than small chopped bits. Some batters use eggs, many do not. 

I think we could do an entire event just making variations of jeon! What a wonderful, tasty experience that would be! Who's game? 

Hobak Jeon - Korean Zucchini Pancakes

This recipe is adapted from Gastronomy Recipes. The batter could not be simpler so the zucchini flavor gets to shine. Do not skip the dipping sauce though. Its spicy saltiness complements the pancakes perfectly.

Ingredients

For the 8 pancakes:

2 small zucchini, approx. weight 9 oz or 255g before trimming

1 cup or 125g flour

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

3/4 cup or 180ml water

Sesame oil

Canola or other light oil

For the dipping sauce:

3 tablespoons soy sauce (I use the lower sodium type.)

1 1/2 tablespoon vinegar (I use aged Chinese black vinegar.)

1 tablespoon minced onion 

2 small cloves garlic, minced 

1 hot chili pepper, sliced

Method

Combine all of the ingredients for the dipping sauce and set it aside. Making this ahead allows time for the garlic, onion and pepper to infuse the soy sauce and vinegar while you mix and pan fry the hobak jeok. 

Cut the ends off of the zucchini and slice them in half lengthwise and then in half again. Trim off the seedy middle and discard. Cut the zucchini in half again through the middle so you have two long, thin pieces for each quarter zucchini. 

Slice each thin piece into smaller sticks. 

Place the zucchini sticks into a bowl and add in the flour and salt. Stir to coat the zucchini with the flour. 

Add the water and combine well with a spoon.

Heat a non-stick pan or griddle over a medium flame and drizzle in 1 tablespoon of oil. 

Scoop about 1/3 cup of batter into the pan and pat it so it spreads out a little with the back of your scoop.

Continue with this process till you have three or four pancakes cooking. Do not overcrowd your pan because you need room to flip the pancakes over with a spatula. 

As the bottom of the pancakes begin to brown, drizzle a little sesame oil into the pan, along the edges of the pancakes. Tilt and shake the pan so that the sesame oil spreads underneath the pancakes.

Cook for another minute until the bottom turns light golden brown and crispy, then turn the pancakes over with a spatula. 

Cook for another 2-3 minutes or until the other side is nicely browned. Repeat with the rest of the batter. Continue cooking pancakes until all the batter is used. 

As the pancakes are ready, put them on a warmed plate. Serve while hot, with the dipping sauce. 

If you aren’t serving them right away, I suggest warming the pancakes in a hot pan again to crispy them up before serving. 

Enjoy! 

As mentioned above, it’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing pancake recipes! Anything made with a batter is fair game.  Check out the links below. 

• 5-Ingredient Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes from Palatable Pastime
• Cinnamon Roll Pancakes from Our Good Life
• Fluffy Yummy Banana Pancakes from Sneha’s Recipe
• Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes from Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Hobak Jeon - Korean Zucchini Pancakes from Food Lust People Love
• Mini Vegan Yachaejeon (Korean Pancakes) from Sizzling Tastebuds
• Pearl Millet Pancakes/Chamchamiya from Mayuri’s Jikoni
• Rice Cooker Pancake from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Sheet Pan Pancakes from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Strawberry Japanese Soufflé Pancakes from Culinary Adventures with Camilla

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

Pin these Hobak Jeon - Korean Zucchini Pancakes!

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