An unusual cure for dressing a salad?

Cured egg Yolks the new parmesan? 

The visual appeal of food has a major impact on your appetite. It is your eyes more than your tongue that make you either want to taste a dish or skip it. The better a dish looks visually, the more eager you are to taste it. You may think that the garnishing of the dish is an afterthought, but in reality, garnishing is a very important factor in making your dish look enticing and appealing. It may look like a decoration that was casually tossed on the plate as an afterthought, but thinking in such a way is wrong, and it doesn’t do justice to the art of skillfully garnishing a dish. The first thing my eye is drawn to when eating out is how is the plate of food in front of me is presented. Sometimes a particular chefs whimsy is not included in the menus description of the dish I have just ordered and my palate defeats me. Identification needs to be resolved by calling upon the waiter. Olive dust and freeze dried parsley powder have both eluded me in the past.

Flakes of salt are the first and most obvious garnish that come to mind.You might think of it as nothing more than the inexpensive stuff that tastes good sprinkled on your chips or any other kind of potato for that matter, but in fact it’s far more than just a garnish or a seasoning and has a long history as a highly prized substance. Today, there are reportedly more than 14,000 known uses for salt. Not only does the human body need it to function properly, but salt is also utilized for everything from producing chemicals to de-icing roads. Salt is a multi tasker.

Before the days of artificial refrigeration, the main method for preserving food was to treat it with salt. In this way, salt came to represent power; without it, armies couldn’t travel great distances and explorers couldn’t explore because their provisions would spoil. Throughout the ages, and cross cultures people also used this mineral in ceremonies and religious rituals. For many centuries, until salt deposits were discovered throughout the world and extraction methods improved, salt was scarce, which made it more valuable.

The expression to be worth one's salt, which means you're competent and deserve what you're earning, is most often said to have its roots in ancient Rome, where soldiers were sometimes paid in salt or given an allowance to purchase it. Any chef worth his salt knows that transforming inexpensive, readily available ingredients into something special is the key to making memorable dishes. One of the best examples of this practice is the salt-cured egg yolk. 

For many, a grating of Parmesan is the indispensable finishing touch on a plate of pasta. The salty taste of the dry cheese makes the perfect savoury complement to your al dente noodles and carefully formulated sauce. However, resourceful chefs today are increasingly embracing this delicious addition of salt cured egg.The next time you shatter a meringue, you may not think about all those homeless egg yolks. Rather than let the yolks go to waste, turn them into a cutting-edge finishing touch or distinctive topping. When finished curing, you can shave the dry-cured yellow orbs of umami over dish after dish like technicolour Parmesan, and people like me will say yum .Cured egg yolks are packed with complex flavour,  have an appealingly firm texture and are ideal for putting that  fresh twist on some of our more familiar dishes. However, you’ll soon find that this rich taste has plenty of other uses. Follow the simple instructions to make your own cured egg yolks today and start experimenting with this distinctive topping. Grate them over pastas, salads, and risottos or blended into dressings to add creaminess. 

The process is simple: Separate yolks, pack in salt, wait, rinse, dry in the oven (optional), and use. Like a hard cheese, cured yolks can quickly add a depth and complexity to a wide range of foods—soups, salads, pastas, and even meats.
Like all curing, this recipe relies on osmosis—water in the yolks travels through the yolk´s membrane to the surrounding cure. This recipe, which cures for a week, yields dry, firm yolks that lose almost 50 percent of their weight in water, which greatly concentrates fat and flavour. So great for the keeping that bad cholesterol at bay. This is an absolutely delicious dairy-free Parmesan substitute. Extracting the water from the yolk concentrates the fat, and the curing process brings out the umami flavor. 

Preparing cured egg yolk is easy, but you’ll need to plan ahead. I have seen recipes suggesting directions that start with mixing 1 3/4 cups sugar and 1 1/4 cups kosher salt in a bowl. and then using the salt and sugar mix to cover the bottom of a plastic container or baking dish .I abandoned this as I wanted a savoury cure and not the added sweetness, so used pure Flor de sal. Here is how I did it.

1.Make a solid platform of salt in a shallow dish .Create indentations in the salt and place the egg yolks in them. Slide the yolks in carefully so they don’t break. Then, sprinkle the salt  on top of the yolks and cover the container tightly.

2.Refrigerate the eggs for seven days. When you’re ready to use them, carefully brush off the salt mixture, gently rinse in cold water and pat off with paper towels. You’ll find the yolks have grown somewhat firm and bright in colour.

3.Before you add the eggs to a dish, you can make them firm enough to grate easily by warming in an oven set to low heat. Set a wire rack covered by a non-stick spray over a rimmed baking pan and place the yolks on top .If you want a softer consistency or want to slice the pass on this step.

4.Heat the oven to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Allow up to two hours for the yolks to firm up.Then, grate finely onto your dish and serve.