Cooking on a Himalayan Salt Block!

A couple of years ago my wife and I purchased a Himalayan salt block while on our honeymoon on a wine tasting trip in Napa Valley. We visited Dean & Deluca on our way to the French Laundry for dinner. We were quite intrigue when we saw the salt block and since we were had our car with us we purchased a circular block that was about 9 inch in diameter and about 1.75 inch in thickness.  It weighs about 15-20lbs and thought it might be fun to use this either to serve food or as we discovered tonight it could be used for cooking :) I found a great article about how to use a Himalayan salt block since I never used one before. 

What inspired me to use the salt block this evening was a couple of things.  My wife and I were discussing the next dinner party and thought about using beef as a theme for a vertical wine tasting. I dropped by Uwajimaya (Japanese grocery store) in Bellevue this afternoon and was browsing the meat department for no particular reason. I saw some beautiful Kobe style beef also known as Waygu beef (American Style Kobe Beef). It was well marbled and it was rib styled meat for $22/lb. True Kobe meat is quite expensive and the cows are known to be rubbed with Sake on the skin since they are prized animals in Japan.  We were fortunate to taste a true Kobe piece of steak at The HerbFarm a couple of years ago.  It was quite amazing!! I never seen any beef so marbled in my life! 

This evening I wanted to cook something simple -- Waygu slice of beef and shrimp. I figure I would use volunteer my wife and my step-daughter as guinea pigs. So far they have survived all my cookings and have not ended up in the hospital...yet :)

I heated the salt block directly on the gas stove starting at low heat for 10 minutes, medium heat for 10 minutes and finally high heat for 20 minutes. 

The photo above is the salt block heating on the gas stove before its first use. The photo below is after cooking the beef and shrimp.

The large crack on the salt block is actually more pronounced, lighter color changes, and definitely more pitted. I worry this would break over time!

The Waygu beef was pre-sliced so it made my life easier. I did not season the beef on purpose to see what it would taste like. The shrimp I did flavor with a light dash of Cajun seasoning. 

The first thing I did was lightly oiled the salt block with olive oil. The beef cooked almost instantly after placing it on the block. The optimal cooking time is about 30 secs on the first side and then about 15 secs on the flip side. Any longer then 30 secs total would over cook the beef. The shrimp takes a little longer about 2 minutes on the first side and then 1 minute on the flip side.

We noticed that the seasoned shrimp was perfect! The beef was a bit bland for the first couple of pieces and after that it was incredible. The beef was able to absorb the right amount of salt while cooking. I tried seasoning more beef at a later time but it was too salty when cooked. I think the key is cook a few slices of beef first and then it will start to bring out the salt on the block. We were quite happy with the first experiment!

The salt block was able to hold its heat for a good 20 minutes!  I like to try cooking vegetables and tofu the next time around for the vegan in me :)

Stay tuned for experiment #2!