How To Cook Scallops On A Himalayan Salt Plate
by Nicola Lando
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5 minutes prep time
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60 minutes cook time
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Intermediate
Cooking on a Himalayan salt plate is a wonderful thing.
It can be unpredictable – but then that’s part of the charm of sautéing scallops on a hard, pink block chiseled out of the ground.
Just as the earth cracks when it’s hot and dry, so it’s normal for the Himalayan salt plate to develop small cracks when subjected to oven-high temperatures. The best way to prevent any large cracks which could split the block is to heat and cool it as slowly and evenly as possible.
Start the Himalayan salt plate in a cool oven, and keep turning up the temperature over 40 minutes before blasting it at a high heat until the surface is speckled-white, and the block is emitting as much heat as you would expect from a hot hob ring. Similarly, allow the Himalayan salt plate to cool slowly after cooking, and clean it with a damp sponge.
It’s hard to provide strict guides on temperatures and timings when cooking on salt plates - instinct has to prevail.
When we cooked the scallops on the salt plate it gave them a beautiful, even salty flavour which couldn’t be achieved with finishing salts. But the scallops didn’t develop the distinctive, caramelized colour that cooked scallops usually take on.
So this recipe is perhaps best for experienced scallop-cookers who can spot whether the scallop is cooked from its subtle changes in texture and colour. Sadly, it’s hard to provide strict guides on temperatures and timings when cooking on Himalayan salt plates, and instinct has to prevail.
Ingredients Serves: 2
- 1 Himalayan salt plate
- 4 scallops
- 15ml olive oil
- 5g Szechuan red pepper, ground
- Lemon zest
Method
- Heat the salt plate as directed above, remove from the oven and place on a folded, dry towel.
- Coat the scallops in olive oil, and place on the salt block until they are done.
- Season with ground Szechuan pepper and lemon zest, and serve.
If you love the cool spiciness of Sichuan pepper, try Timut pepper which carries the same intense heat.
About the author
Nicola Lando is the co-founder and CEO of Sous Chef, where she has spent more than a decade sourcing, tasting and selecting specialist ingredients, cookware and tableware from producers around the world.
She trained at Leiths and later completed a stage at a Michelin-starred London restaurant, experiences that helped shape Sous Chef’s original mission: to give home cooks access to the same exceptional ingredients used by professional chefs.
Today, Nicola leads much of Sous Chef’s product sourcing and ingredient selection, working directly with producers and travelling internationally to food fairs, farms, mills and manufacturers. She tastes thousands of products each year and has built deep expertise across storecupboard ingredients, olive oil, condiments, spices, preserved foods and specialist cooking ingredients.
She holds an olive oil sommelier certification from ESAO in Spain, Imperial Executive Education’s Certificate in Nutrition for Health: Evidence-Based Tools and Strategies certificate; as well as studying Food Safety and Control at University of Greenwich.
Nicola also writes recipes and ingredient guides for Sous Chef, combining practical cooking experience with first-hand knowledge from producers, suppliers and specialist food makers. Her work focuses on helping cooks understand how to choose better ingredients, use them well, and get more flavour from their cooking.
