Culinary Demonstration – POSH Salt™ – Epcot International Food & Wine Festival 2012

Epcot International Food & Wine Festival 2012

Culinary Demonstration – Alisa Malavenda, POSH Salt™, Cliffside Park, New Jersey

October 1, 2012

First off, we need to start with how delightful and engaging the trio was this evening… (Pam Smith from WDW, Alisa Malavenda a private chef and a POSH Salt devotee, and Laura Castelli, the founder of POSH Salt; oh and lest we forget, Sharon the assistant chef who’s been on duty for all of our Culinary Demonstrations thus far).

Laura – she brought “fooding your salt” to the culinary world in 2004, and continues to do so with POSH Salt

Alisa, the chef was very engaging. She began by telling us that in an Italian family, you must look everyone in the eye and say “Salute” when drinking wine, that’s why family dinner take so long 🙂

Wine: Sterling Vintner’s Collection Riesling, Sterling Vineyards (California)

There wasn’t a wine representative for this culinary demo, so Pam did the honors. The wine was an American Reisling, not overly sweet; we should detect some honey, honeysuckle, apricot, citrus/lemon when smelling and when tasting this wine. Nora noted some mineral and acidity when sniffing and the taste wasn’t too grassy or acidic, it was nice enough. We already knew that when it comes to white wines, Reislings have a pretty good chance of pleasing us.

The Story

(keep in mind that this demonstration was as much about the process/attitude towards food as it was about the actual food; this was the story we were told at the demonstration)

So, what is it about using salt as a cooking vessel? In other words, about fooding your salt instead of salting your food?

Laura had bought some slabs of this himalayan salt and she was keeping them in her garage over the winter. When she had her husband bring them into the house, she noticed that they maintained their temperature for quite a while (it took a long time for them to warm up)… in a quick experiment, she discovered that what was true for COLD was also true for HOT. So, it’s possible to use salt vessels for cooking and presentation… that’s what this demonstration was all about.

We started with gravlax (cured salmon; although nick LOVES salmon, he isn’t a gravlax fan and was concerned). Typically, gravlax (which means “grave”) is fish that’s been buried in salt and weighted down to remove moisture (again, a method of preservation). With POSH salt slabs, the salmon is laid atop one salt plate and another is place on top, for about 24 hours.

Notes from discussion while Chef Alisa is cooking:

• All foods contain water, the water in the food melts the salt, and thus “salt is fooded.” If there is a barrier of fat (or oils), the salt dissolution slows down.
• If you put unsalted butter on your salt plate, the top remains sweet butter and the bottom becomes salted butter.
• How do you clean your salt plate? Salt is naturally antimicrobial. You can’t microwave it or put it in the dishwasher (they told a funny story of a famous chef who kept sending his salt plates through the usual restaurant dishwashing procedure… his salt plates kept melting (of course! doh!)). To clean it, first let it return to room temperature, run warm water over it and rub with your hand to remove the top layer of salt. If it gets really dirty, use 1/2 lemon and some coarse salt to scrub it clean.
• The salt plate have great shelf life… 500 million years.
• Heat it slowly! Because it has natural cracks, like a pizza stone… it can shatter/fracture if heated too quickly.
• Wonderful to bake bread on – the salt pulls moisture out of the oven and the bread itself, making a really crusty loaf.
• Can use in a smoker – heat it slowly in the oven and put on the smoker – however, if you use it in a smoker, it will absorb smoke and that will not come out. A suggestion: put some chunks of the salt into the smoker and make your own smoked salt – just microplane the chunk when you want smoked salt.
• Added bonuses – Chef Alisa showed us how to use the salt slabs to make bananas foster (yum, savory & sweet) and how to use them to make fried eggs (nick had just said he wanted breakfast cooked on a salt slab) – 2^nd bonus, we each got to keep our salt plate from the demonstration (except nora’s broke when we got home)

 

Menu:

POSH Saltware™ Himalayan Salt™ Cured Norwegian Gravlax with Cucumber Dill Crème Fraiche, Crispy Capers, and Micro Greens; Himalayan Salt Seared Spiedini di Manxo and Purple Potato Hash

Recipes

Serves 4-6

Salmon Gravlax Cured on Salt Slabs

• 2 POSH Saltware™ Himalayan Salt Blocks
• ¼ c brown sugar, packed
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• ½ tsp dried mustard powder
• 1 piece fresh salmon that will fit on the slab
• sprigs of fresh dill to cover the salmon
• microgreens for garnish (pea, radish, sunflower, or popcorn shoots)
• fruity extra virgin olive oil

1. mix the sugar, pepper, and mustard in a small bowl and set aside
2. remove pin bones and skin from fish and rub with sugar, pepper, and mustard mixture; sprinkle with fresh dill and place fish on one salt slab
3. top with second salt slab and place on a plate (there will be some juice that leaks out
4. put in a paper bag (not plastic) and place in the refrigerator for 24 to 48 hours
5. when ready to serve, rinse fish well under cool water and pat dry
6. thinly slice on the bias and serve with crème fraiche and crostini or toast points
7. garnish with your choice of micro greens (sunflower, radish, pea shoots, etc…) and fried capers
8. drizzle with a fruity extra virgin olive oil

Cucumber Crème Fraiche

• 1 cucumber, peeled and seeded
• 2 c crème fraiche
• 1 tbs fresh dill, chopped
• ½ tsp fresh lemon juice
• salt and pepper, to taste

1. puree cucumber in a food processor until smooth, drain excess liquid
2. mix cucumber puree together with remaining ingredients, set aside

Crispy Capers

(note: Nick says these are really, really good capers; he’s not a caper nut although nora is…)

• ¼ c capers
• grapeseed oil for frying

1. pat capers dry on a paper towel
2. heat oil in frying pan; when hot, sprinkle in capers; fry until they open up a little and are crispy
3. drain on a paper towel and cool completely

Spiedini di Manzo

• preheated POSH Saltware™ salt slab, 8×8 or 8×12 inches
• 1 lb ribeye, cut thin and pounded into ¼ inch thick slices (the recipe says to use filet, but Chef Alisa said you want to use a meat with some fat in it!)
• ½ c panko bread crumbs
• 1 c grated provolone cheese (nora could have sworn that Chef used parmesan cheese)
• 1 tbs fresh parsley, chopped fine
• 1 tbs fresh thyme, chopped
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 tbs parmesan cheese
• oilive oil, to coat
• non plastic skewers or such

1. preheat POSH Saltware™ salt slab slowly on stove top or in the oven until it reaches 500F
2. mix bread crumbs, provolone cheese, parsley, and thyme in a bowl and season with salt and pepper
3. dip beef in olive oil and press into bread crumb mixture; sprinkle with parmesan cheese and fold in half and skewer
4. sear on a 500F salts slab or about 5-10 seconds per side

Peruvian Purple Potato Hash

• POSH Saltware™ salt slab 8×8 or 8×12
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 lb purple potatoes
• ¼ c sweet onion (like Vidalia), finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• ½ c cremini mushrooms, chopped
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. par cook potatoes and cut into a small dice
2. on preheated salt slab, heat olive oil; add potatoes, onions, garlic, and mushrooms and sauté for 5-10 minutes, stirring often
3. season with pepper to taste

Alisa was a fabulous presenter, very enjoyable and engaging. Nora went up and spoke with her afterwards, so either nora’s getting braver or Alisa was just great (well, maybe it’s both).

 

The servers were the same ones from our session on Sunday and earlier today – SLOW and INEFFICIENT. Goodness gracious, sure do hope they step it up a notch, this is ridiculous…