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This is really an "equipment" question. I have a new piece of cooking equipment, a Himalayan Salt Block.

I have found a few recipes online.

However, I have to say, I don't think there are ANY recipes for cooking on salt blocks in my cookbook collection! And as much as I like (make that *love*!) EYB, I can't search here for a specific kind of equipment.

Do any EYB members have some suggestions about where to look for recipes?

Thanks - Vanessa

Well aren't you lucky to have such a fun toy! Having never personally used one I can't make any first hand recommendations, but I do have a suggestion.  There's a book out there by Mark Bitterman called Salted: A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral, with Recipes.  Bitterman is the owner of The Meadow, a store in Portland, OR.  The book's been featured on NPR and in food magazines and I gather he's pretty well known among the culinary community in PDX, so if he's got any recipes for using a salt block in the book I bet they're good ones.  Here's a link to a page on the store's website that might also be helpful: http://www.atthemeadow.c...age=index&cPath=1_27

Please let us know what you learn along the way, too!  I'm curious...

It looks like the book jzanger suggested, Bitterman's Salted: A manifesto... is your best bet for cookbooks that actually contain techniques and recipes. If you look at this link at Bitterman's Salt blog, there are some suggestions for using it as a griddle-like cooking surface, as a baking stone, or as a source of cold for mixing or serving.

Keep us posted on your discoveries.

The Salt book by Fritz Gubler, David Glynn and Dr Russell Keast also talks specifically about himalayan salt block, and from memory I think it gives advice on using them. Might be worth a look

Let us know what you find out

The salt block was the hit of the party. I heated it on the stove top. Since the store was electric, I used a flame tamer between the block and the stovetop. (On my own gas stove, I would not have needed the flame tamer and would have just set the block on the iron framework above the burner.) I heated the block slowly for about 20 minutes and then at the maximum for that burner. (I think I actually got the temp higher than it needed to be, out of fear that it wouldn't get hot enough. Turned out there was no reason whatsoever for any such fears!) I spread a bit of olive oil on the salt block just before starting to grill.

I peeled shirmp (all except the end of the tail), tossed them in olive oil and chopped garlic, and threaded them on rosemary skewers. (I got three shrimp per skewer, which meant I could lay three skewers on the block at a time.) It tooke just a couple of minutes per side, and the shrimp were extremely succulent. (I used medium-size shrimp from the grocery, about 30 to the pound, caught on the East Coast. Here in Charleston, we do get marvelous local shrimp in our own season. I would use a slightly larger sized shrimp, and local ones, if I could get them. However, these were still very close to the best shrimp I've ever eaten. They were amazingly juicy!). They did "pull" salt out of the block.

I did dry the shrimp thoroughly before tossing them in the oil; the various instructions I found were stern about not putting watery things (like butter) on the salt block.

The block took about an hour to cool down. I believe I could have cut the heat off 45 minutes earlier and not slowed down the cooking at all; I will definitely try to use a gentler heat next time.

The block itself darkened a bit; it is not as translucent as before. It has a mark on one side from the flame tamer. It cleaned up very easily - rubbing with the dish bush under running water, but the cooking side now seems to have a "cure" or a "seasoning" - kind of a different, slicker, surface. 

One other thing - the block did crack a bit and we now have a little chunk out of it that we can grate over something we want to salt. How fun!

It was definitely the hit of the party - it would be fun to cook your own, kind of like fondue. In fact, I'd bet you could bring a heated block to the table (with something under it to keep from frying your good dining table!) and people could do their own cooking.

Here's a link to a site that has some nice recipe ideas:

http://www.himalasalt.co...=recipes&display=242

I LOVE to cook fish on salt!  The Gourmet Cookbook (indexed) has on page 289 a recipe for Salmon cooked on salt.  I make it whenever I want succulent salmon and perfect left overs for a later day.  It calls for sea or kosher salt, but I make it with the ice cream salt that has grains about the size of peas. Oddly, ice cream salt is especially practical for high heat cooking!

In a dry 10 inch skillet, as Reichl instructs, put in enough salt to be about an inch deep.  (The pan will not be damaged or difficult to clean.) To figure out how you are going to cook them, lay the fish skin side down on the cold salt WITHOUT LETTING THE PIECES TOUCH EACH OTHER OR THE SIDE OF THE PAN.  Cut them to fit if necessary.  Now take the fish out and heat the pan until the salt is "just beginning to smoke".  It will be about 500 degrees F, so get the toddlers and puppies out of the way.  Lay the fish skin side down again on the hot salt.  Nothing will splatter or jump!  Just lay it onto the hot rocks.  Cover the pan. Keep the heat set to volcano.

 What happens then is the water in the flesh of the fish is vaporized and immediately absorbed by the salt molecules, leaving the most extraordinarily buttery salmon imaginable.  When there is a dot of raw, wet uncooked fish the size of a pencil eraser in the top centers of the fillets, turn off the heat. 

  Have a pancake turner and a metal spatula handy next to the hot pan and the serving platter.  Uncover the salmon and hold the skin down with the spatula or butter knife, and slide the pancake turner between the skin and the cooked fillet.  The skin will have likely welded onto the salt.  If this is difficult, lift the fillet and skin onto your platter.  The huge pebbles of salt are easy to sweep off. Salt will not have gotten onto the fish, so as she says, salt and pepper before cooking, if desired.

  The science of this recipe is that hot salt is amazingly thirsty AND it conducts heat well.  Your salmon will have been deliciously roasted in a VERY dry heat in about 8 minutes.  Try this with ho hum farmed salmon, and even it will taste good.  Towel dried hrimp would be great, as would calamari, adjusting for far less cooking time.

 Discard the salt after it has cooled, or use it next winter!

Having had my salt block for a year now, I canalso add that it "weeps". I live in South Carolina, which is pretty humid. The block normally sits out on the counter. In the spring and fall, when it is quite warm but we don't have the A/C on, the block develops a puddle of salty water at the bottom. (This doesn't seem to harm the countertops at all, but they are an old laminate. I can imagine that if I'd put the block into a cabinet, I would have had a nasty surprise at one point!). So I have resorted to keeping it in the refrigerator during "weeping" season.  The weeping itself doesn't seem to harm the block - I'm sure that it is losing mass and will eventually be a lot smaller, but that will be many warm seasons in the future.

Because the salt attracts water to it, then melts, the solution you came up with works:  put the block into a dry place.  The refrigerator pulls water vapor out and condenses it away from the block.  If frig space becomes scarce, you might tighly wrap the salt block to make it inconvenient for the wee water molecules to get together with the NaCl and make happy brine.  Double trash bags, anyone?