A new way to cook salmon
I am getting my cooking mojo back. The Food 52 Cookbook Club is forcing me out of my Southern casserole-loving, fried-food obsessed rut. This month, we’ve been cooking from Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat. It’s more than a cookbook. It’s a guidebook to how to properly season and balance food by using…you guessed it…salt, fat, acid and heat. It’s upping my game.
For example, let’s just talk about salt. I’ve learned to ban the iodized salt and embrace the kosher salt, specifically Diamond Crystal. I’ve learned to salt meat in advance so that the salt permeates the meat and seasons it throughout. I’m sorry. King Daddy and I are having filets tonight and I’ve already forgotten this lesson. I’ll be right back.
Okay, salt applied and steaks resting in the meat safe (microwave…cat proof). A few more. Season water for vegetables so as they cook they’re seasoned from the inside out. And salt is a mineral; pepper is a spice. They don’t always have to be used together.
Nosrat’s method of cooking salmon is extremely low and slow in the oven, counter intuitive to the normal way of hot and fast in a saute pan. The oven temperature is only 225 degrees and depending on the size of the salmon it takes about it takes about 40-50 minutes. She offers three variations, one using a bed of herbs, one citrus zest on the top and sliced citrus on the bottom and the last an Indian-Spiced Salmon.
It was the most flavorful tender salmon I’ve ever made. King Daddy and I ate it for supper one night and I crumbled some on toast spread with mascarpone cheese (an Italian version of cream cheese) for breakfast the next day. Bonus points for cooking it on a foil-lined baking sheet that required no clean up.
The other thing I’m discovering during my cookbook club odyssey is that a lot of the selections are available at my library. More bonus points for my cheap self. Next month we’re going to India with Made in India by Meera Sodha. I’ll keep you posted with the delicious results.
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