Summer is here! For me, that means bathing suits, late nights on the patio, camping, and of course good food. To me, nothing is more satisfying than gathering together with close people in my life enjoying amazing food. And when you think about it, what really brings people together better than food?
I am all about trying new methods of cooking, and when I learned about this one, I had to try it! All you need is a medium to large brick of pink Himalayan salt (I ordered mine here) and food to cook. There are many different sizes you can order. I chose the 1.5 x 4 x 8 “Kitchen Brick” and ordered a total of 4.
When you are ready to cook, the first thing you need to do is place your salt bricks in the oven before you preheat it. The reason you don’t want to put the salt in the oven after its heated is because it will stress the mineral and the brick will break. I recommend putting your brick(s) on a baking sheet so you can remove it easily from the oven.
I heated my oven to 500 degrees, and let the salt bricks “bake” for about 45 minutes. While the oven was preheating and baking, it gave me time to prepare the food.
I picked up 3 types of fish from my local grocery store: salmon, tilapia, and yellow tail tuna. I decided to make a marinade for the fish. I grated some fresh ginger, garlic, fresh squeezed lemon juice, sugar, and some soy sauce.
When the bricks of salt are ready carefully take them out of the oven and place them on a surface with a oven mitt or another type of heat protectant.
There are different opinions out there as to whether or not you should use oil on the salt bricks when cooking. We decided to try using it, and it worked out really well.
Place the fish on the salt bricks to cook. The aromas are aaaaamazing! We cooked the zucchini pieces on a separate brick so the flavors didn’t mix.
Here is how they turned out!
These bricks of salt are perfect for entertaining in small numbers. Every person, or every two people can share a brick to cook their food to their own liking.
The one thing I wouldn’t do is use soy sauce as a marinade. I completely neglected the fact that we were cooking on salt and soy sauce is salty! Duh. The fish still turned out amazing.
For cleaning the salt bricks, be sure to let them cool completely. Then take a damp wash cloth and gently wipe away what was cooked onto the salt. Then heat them up again in the oven to 500 degrees for about 20 minutes so the minerals can re-crystalize. Let them cool again completely before removing them from the oven.
Happy cooking!