Kala Namak

The topic of Kala Namak came up over in the best spice thread and Jay suggested that dissecting it would be better in another thread. This salt has been mentioned at Permies a few times -- often as an ingredient to make vegan foods seem more eggy: https://permies.com/t/120039/Vegan-Cooking-Substitutes, https://permies.com/t/240295/special, https://permies.com/t/155650/Sp-tzle-gnocchi-dumplings-share#1222014, etc, but I didn't see a dedicated thread. So here it is!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kala_namak wrote:Kala namak or black salt is a kiln-fired rock salt with a sulphurous, pungent smell used in the Indian subcontinent. It is also known as "Himalayan black salt", Sulemani namak, bit noon, bire noon, bit loona, bit lobon, kala loon, sanchal, kala meeth, guma loon, or pada loon, and is manufactured from the salts mined in the regions surrounding the Himalayas.

I have a box of this sulfurous salt but I've only ever used it to make tofu seem eggy. It works pretty well for that! In that other thread, it was suggested to put it on potatoes. That has promise.

What have you done with black salt?

And if you're interested in the production of it, it seems like it was a fairly low-tech transformation of a natural resource but the modern stuff is more "artificial" and produced industrially. You can read a little more about it at the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kala_namak

we use a lot of it, as mentioned in the spice thread when you want an eggy taste (like in a vegan quiche) it is a great ingredient.
I do prefer, however, the traditional Indian uses like chaat masala (sprinkled on fruit with some warm and hot spices, or puris) or in raita (yogurt sauce/salads) or lassi (savory, not mango!). It's used really sparingly and adds a really nice dimension.

I don't recall the Indian/Nepali word for the dish, but sauteing spices and greens with chickpea flour (batter?) produces something a bit like scrambled eggs.  With the tofu as mentioned,  quite good.....and with kala namak, even better.  Also, go-to chicken noodle soup these days (vegan) is one of the commercial un-breaded chickun offerings as meat substitute, lasagna noodles parboiled and sliced up to make hearty soup noodles, then the usual suspects of celery, carrot, onion and if no vegan-based chicken boullion available, will combine nutritional yeast flakes with kala namak to get chicken-y flavor.  Finally.....awesome eggnog!  Thick milk of your choice (homemade nut-based quite good....try hazelnut) with touch of kala namak, sugar/sweetener to taste, pinch of nutmeg ....... and if so inclined, a touch of rum :-)........very good replacement.  Cue the salivary glands..... lol

Wow! So many uses I never would have thought of! And here I thought I was clever sprinkling it on popcorn instead of regular salt!

John Weiland - I am going to look up the Indian/Nepali scrambley dish, thanks!

Pakora is how I first had it: Chickpea flour & spices & water as a batter, mixed into a big bowl of shredded veggies like cabbage, carrots, lots of onion, peppers, anything that's not too watery (zucchini gets too mushy), and fry. You can also use the batter as a tempura and coat slices of potato, broccoli florets, cauliflower, etc, all in larger bite sized pieces. Anyway, all pakora needs is black salt sprinkled on top!

If anyone feels averse to trying it, give it a chance. My first bite was like "WHAT THE ----?!?" and I thought I didn't like it. But I didn't even notice I reached for it again, and again, until I deeply felt "I need this in my life!" and I am now in love. (that's sorta how I felt about my husband, lol)

Kim Wills wrote:....My first bite was like "WHAT THE ----?!?" .............(snip)......... (that's sorta how I felt about my husband, lol)

LOLOLOL!....  

Popcorn.....I thought I had tried everything on that including chunky chat masala (very kala namak--y).   Looks like new batch of popcorn will be on the way for testing tomorrow!  (The house pot-bellied pig will second that decision...)  Added a bit of it to some potato salad tonight and can recommend as well.  Pakora on the list now as well with spring greens not too far into the future.

Bizarre non sequitur side note:   Our chickens LOVE popcorn, but since I make it in oil, they need to wipe their beaks in the grass periodically as they don't carry napkins....