my latest discovery
It works great with meat and fish(oven baking) as well as veg slices
but here are a few other uses
Armed with that knowledge, we unleash the hounds and set to. Here
are just a few of our favorite uses for our Pakistani Pink Himalayan
Salt Plates.
a)
Arrange thinly sliced Carpaccio or sashimi on a
cool salt platter and serve. Watch as the food literally salt-cures
while at the table, gently cooking the edges and bringing on just a
smidge of mineral-rich saltiness.
b)
Place a large square tile of Pakistani Himalayan
salt under the broiler. Wait 30 minutes, then remove the tile with a
kitchen glove. Set on trivet at table, and saute fish, meats, and
veggies while your guests or family look on with awe, disbelief, and
dawning admiration. While cooking, your food will take on a light
saltiness. Note that The Meadow’s larger Himalayan salt tiles will
often hold heat long enough for repeated grillings before needing to
reheat, but that batches will be successively saltier.
c)
For an out-doorsy variation on the above, place a
large platter of our Himalayan salt on the backyard grill, and plank
grill a fennel-and-lemon stuffed monkfish, a lime-and-ginger marinated
flank steak, or a balsamic and garlic rubbed Portobello mushroom.
d)
For a variation on the wilder side of the
out-doorsy, do what our two boys clamor for day in, day out, day in, day
out (be forewarned). Heat a large Himalayan salt platter on an outdoor
gas grill (best) or an indoor gas stove (use extreme caution). Lightly
butter the salt platter, toss on firm bananas, grill 20 seconds on each
side. Turn off the grill (important), douse with grappa or bourbon,
ignite with a long match, and watch the flambé! Blow out last flames
and serve with scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.Barely salted and
seductively caramelized, the bananas spring to life against the cool
silken contrast of the ice cream.
e) Freeze a
Himalayan salt block
or plate for two hours. Remove, and plate up scoops of ice cream or
sorbet. More fun yet, warm lightly whipped sweet heavy cream, egg,
honey, and aged bitters, and refrigerate. Remove the salt slab from
freezer, pour mixture on it, slowly lufting with spatula, for a
salt-tinged ice custard you will not soon forget.
f)
Impress your Jewish grandma with Gravlax. Thaw a
filet of commercially frozen (for health reasons) salmon, roll in sugar
and minced dill, arrange on a Himalayan salt plate, cover with a heavy
brick of Himalayan salt, wrap in paper bag and refrigerate for three
days, slice, serve with crème fraîche and melba toast or just eat!
g)
Getting back to basics, just use it as a serving
platter for butter, cheeses, dried meats, or your daily does of pickled
ginger and wasabe. When used as a plate for moist food such as apple
slices and mozzarella, the food acquires an enhanced salt and mineral
flavoring. One of ours serves as our regular butter dish.
h)
If panache is what it takes to brighten the musty
corners of your soul, try serving up an entire meal using large round or
square Himalayan salt plates. Moist foods take on a touch of
saltiness, dry foods do not, and everything glows with the otherworldly
power of the ancient world (see Ogling below).
i)
Place our larger platters of the Himalayan salt
on the rack of your oven, preheat, and then bake bread, pizza, and
savory pastries.
j)
Get existential for a moment, place in window
and stare idly at the beauty of salt in its natural, ancient state (see
Ogling below).
k)
Cut into jewelry, set in the precious metal of
your choice, and nibble it as nibble jewelry from the lobes and fingers
of your loved-one.
l)
Take old (generally after many years of service)
or broken salt plates and smash them up with a hammer (this should be
fun), then arrange the prettier bits on a dinner plate as a garnish.
m)
Take a bath, breaking up an old salt plate and tossing it into the
tub to serve as an excellent and therapeutic bath salt, and pumice
stone.
Caring for your Pakistani Pink Himalayan Salt Plate
After each use, wash
your Himalayan salt plate with warm water and a soft brush or green
scrubby, and tamp dry with a paper towel before setting on a drying
rack. This will remove a very thin layer of the salt and make it ready
for use again. Treated with care, a large salt slab will provide years
of service! In addition, the powerful antimicrobial properties of the
salt insure that it is always proper and ready for future use, with no
need for detergents.
