Salmon revolution

Once upon a time, I lived in France.

It seems a crazy story now that, often, the highlight of my day is getting an iced latte before work. But it really did happen, and it changed the way I live.

I walked everywhere, along cobblestone streets that were menacing to the ankles but lined with beautiful old buildings and colorful tulips. I spent weekend mornings in the dining room of résidence St. Louis (a.k.a., the house on Rue Princesse ) writing in thin, French notebooks. And, for the first time in my adult life, I cooked.

I knew before I even left the States that I’d have to give up my vegetarian diet, which was really a cheese-and-bread diet. My step-mom, Stacey, sent me to France with a simple method for cooking salmon. I bought frozen salmon fillets at Carrefour every other week and cooked them with a little olive oil and some dried tarragon. The result had varying degrees of success … sometimes they were delicious, sometimes they were dry and crusty.

Of course it was the latter result when I had my friend Amy over for dinner one night. She was a good sport about it, but we ended up covering the cooked fillets in lemon juice and feta cheese so they’d be a bit more palatable.

Since then, I’ve been afraid to prepare salmon for anyone other than myself. And since I don’t do steak (well, I don’t cook it…) I’ve lacked a really wonderful, special dish that I can make when I want to impress someone.

But when I found myself hungry, coho fillet in hand, I decided to try something new. My lovely aunt has loaned me her copy of Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, so I flipped through it until I found a recipe that seemed doable and delicious.

The result was a piece of salmon that was perfect: slippery and soft, with an amazing, light flavor from little more than onions and thyme. I served it (to myself) with mixed greens dressed in aioli vinaigrette.

This is a dish that I will happily, proudly prepare for a guest in the future. Lucky is the man who tastes this …

Bittman’s Salmon Roasted with Herbs, with some modifications

one fresh salmon fillet, skin on, pin-bones removed

(Tweezers are great for removing the pin bones. It’s a nifty little trick I learned from Dave, the sous chef at re:public.)

two tablespoons olive oil

three tablespoons chopped yellow onion

(original recipe calls for  two tablespoons minced shallots, but I had no shallots and I’m not great at mincing)

three sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves removed from stems

Preheat oven to 475°F. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a roasting pan (I did it, as MB suggests in the oven. Can also be done on the stove.) Place the salmon in the oil, flesh side down, with thyme and onion. Return the pan to the oven, and roast about 5 minutes, then turn and roast 5 to 7 minutes longer, until the salmon is done (I had to cut the fillet a bit to figure this out.) Sprinkle with salt and pepper, garnish and serve immediately.

Something important I’ve learned from Bittman: Fish retains enough heat to continue cooking after it has been removed from the heat source, so stop cooking just before the salmon reaches the point you’d consider it done. Raw salmon is a bit translucent, so I like to cook it until just the very center retains that shiny red. A few minutes out of the oven, and then it’s perfect!