How to make meats and veggies sizzle on Himalayan salt slabs.
What if we told you that you could cook just about anything on a big, pink slab of 900-degrees-hot Himalayan salt? Cooking with salt slabs is more like an art than it is cooking; the salt is absorbed into whatever is sizzling on the slab, so there’s no need for seasoning beyond a sprinkling of pepper. Intrigued? Chef Jacques Qualin of J&G Steakhouse at The Phoenician, who has been a chef in both Paris and New York, showed us everything from how to heat the slab to how to obtain the perfect salty crust on an entrée.
| Step 1: The Salt Slab Himalayan salt slabs can be bought locally from Go Lb. Salt (golbsalt.com) or at stores like Sur La Table and Williams-Sonoma. Prices range from around $30 to $100, depending on the size. Qualin says 8×12-inch slabs are best for cooking. Put the slab on the grill and slowly increase the heat (or place the slab in a completely cooled oven before heating) until it reaches 500 degrees, which Qualin says is the best temperature for searing. “Make sure to heat the stone slowly, otherwise it may explode,” he says. |
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Step 2: Cooking on Salt “Be creative when choosing what you want to cook; just about anything you can think of can be cooked on it,” Qualin says. For steak, Qualin prefers a 16-oz. New York strip. He sprinkles a little pepper on it and lays the meat on the slab. |
| Step 3: Turning the Meat Qualin recommends letting steak sizzle on the slab for roughly five minutes, then flipping the meat over and leaving it for another five minutes, to cook the cut to medium-rare. |
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Step 4: The Finished Product Vegetables take on a new life when cooked on salt slabs; asparagus, yellow tomatoes, Brussels sprouts and even avocado are seasoned perfectly, though they may end up sticking to the slab. The remedy: Apply a little olive oil to the slab first. |
| Step 5: Cleaning the Salt Slab Never use soap and water to wash your stone. Water will melt the sodium slab, and soap will permeate it, corrupting the flavor of your food. Qualin says it’s easiest to clean the slab while it’s still hot. Just take a steel wire scouring pad and move it in a circular motion around the stone. |
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Chef Jacques Qualin of J&G Steakhouse at The Phoenician |
