One does not need to explain the importance of salt in food. It may be ‘basic’ kitchen essential now, but a handful of salt has led to wars and rebellions in olden times. How could we forget our very own ‘Salt Satyagraha? Did you also know the word ‘salary’ comes from the word ‘salarium’ or salt allowance given to Roman soldiers? In other words, the significance of salt, whether it is in your curries or in History, cannot be underestimated. Fortunately, India is blessed with numerous types of salts due to its varied topography. In North, you do have the much-beloved Himalayan pink salt, but if you go in Gharwal and parts of Uttarakhand, there is another popular variant of salt that has been making a bunch of their scrumptious delicacies even more flavourful. Recently, celebrity chef Saransh Goila also taught his Instagram followers how to make his version of the salt.
What Is Pisyu Loon?
In the caption of his recent Instagram reel, Chef Goila wrote that his ‘Hara Namak’ or Green Garlic salt is inspired from Uttrakhand’s ‘Pisyu Loon’. Loon is a word for salt in Gharwali, whereas Pisyu refers to something that is grounded. So there isn’t one standard recipe of Pisyu loon, but several kinds. These salts are made fresh with rock salt, fresh herbs like coriander, mint and spices such as turmeric, ginger, garlic. They are combined together using a sil-batta. A rather unique grinding stone that you would still find in many Indian households despite the advent of modern mixer grinders and food processes. The salt and herbs are placed on the sil, the flattened stone, and with the help of other stone, everything is mashed and mixed together and the result is something extraordinary.
According to the recipe video shared by chef Goila, all you need to do is blend half cup green garlic, one-fourth cup of coriander, 2 tsp roasted jeera, 1-inch ginger, 2 green chillies in a mixer. Blend it into a coarse paste, add half cup of salt and mix again. Take the mixture out on a glass tray, and bake at 80-100c or lowest temperature in your oven for 30 minutes or sun dry it for four hours. Watch the full reel while grooving to Hardy Sandhu’s latest hit Bijlee Bijlee that Goila uses as the background music.
“Hara Namak or Green Garlic Salt is my current favourite to use on top of everything I eat from fruits to sabzi to chaats!”, the chef writes in his caption. He also gives a pro-tip right in the end of the caption for those who do not have so much time to engage in the labour of love this kind of salt demands. “all you need to do is sun dry it or dry in oven at lowest temperature for 30 minutes. DO NOT ADD any WATER while grinding. Very important!”, he writes.
