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2 bananas

24 strawberries, washed and greens trimmed

Remove the cream from the refrigerator so that it loses its chill.

Place the salt bowl on a stove burner over low heat and allow to warm for 30 minutes.

When the salt bowl is warm, about 125°F, add the cream and heat until just warm to the touch, about 3 minutes. Add the bitters and stir in 1 cup of the chocolate chips. When the chocolate is mostly melted, add in the remaining chocolate and stir until completely melted.

While the chocolate is melting, peel the bananas and slice into ½-inch thick rounds. Arrange the strawberries and bananas on a serving plate.

With oven mitts, remove the salt bowl from the heat, and place on a trivet. Serve the fruit with long skewers for dipping into the chocolate.

To clean the salt bowl, allow to cool, moisten and scrub with a nondetergent scrub pad, rinse under cold water, and pat dry with a clean cloth or paper towels.

SALT BLOCK-GRILLED FLANK STEAK

SERVES 4

Flank steak has to be pretty much the best thing this side of getting a foot rub while drinking a root beer float. But it’s tough. It’s ornery. There is a common strategy to making flank steak supple enough to eat without popping your jaw out of joint: marinating. I’ve made coffee and ginger marinades, lime and tequila marinades, smoked salt and chile pepper marinades, vinegar and sugar marinades, you name it. Every time, great steak. But think of the poor steak: a wonderful, flavor-packed piece of meat subjugated to intense acids and sugars and salts. What if you’re a purist, racked with guilt? The flank steak puts you in a quandary. How do we get the elemental flavor out of a meat that resists the teeth? As usual, the solution to every quandary is to think outside the box, or in this case, outside the pan.

The two simple tricks to this dish (if you can call steak seared on a giant block of salt a dish) are cutting the meat thin, against the grain, and cooking it fast at a high temperature. Oh, and don’t cook it on indifferent steel, but on a block of glowing, flavor-packing, tenderizing Himalayan pink salt.

1 (two-pound) flank steak

1 (8 by 8 by 2-inch or larger) block Himalayan pink salt

Cut the flank steak lengthwise along the grain of the meat, creating two long strips. Then, turning the piece perpendicular to the blade of your knife, cut the strips across the fiber of the meat into ¼-inch-thick strips, each about 2 to 3 inches long. Set aside.

Heat the salt block on a stove, as described in Heating.

To test whether the block is hot enough, place one piece of meat on the block. It should sizzle vigorously (or however it is that a piece of meat sizzles when it is really sizzling). Alternatively, use an infrared thermometer, or try to hold your hand 2 or 3 inches away from the block. If you can’t, it’s hot enough.

Place about 12 pieces of steak on the block, or as many as the block will hold without the pieces touching. After 5 seconds (yes, just five seconds), flip and cook for another 5 seconds. Repeat with the remaining steak and serve immediately.

Make sure the salt block is off the heat, and let it cool to room temperature before cleaning and storing.

SALT BLOCK-FRIED DUCK BREAST WITH DUCK FAT-FRIED POTATOES

SERVES 2

Salt isn’t fat soluble. On the face of it, this statement might not exactly make your spine tingle with excitement. Another unsexy observation: solid fat melts when heated. But combined, these two fatty facts provide the basis for one incomparably delicious meal. Heat a Himalayan salt block and toss on a duck breast, fat side down. The fat will immediately melt, but because salt isn’t fat soluble it will not dissolve, and the duck breast will pick up only the faintest trace of salt. When you flip the breast to the lean side, the moisture on the surface of the meat will start to flow and the meat will take on a beautiful glaze of salt that carries the whole dish. Meanwhile, you can fry potatoes in the hot fat glazing the salt block! Simple as this dish may seem, it makes the best duck breast I have ever eaten. Serve