Bountiful: Recipes Inspired by Our Garden is the first book from Todd Porter and Diane Cu. They started out, as so many cookbook authors do these days, with a blog: White on Rice Couple, where they share their gardening successes (and failures), recipes and their travels. Overall, Bountiful‘s recipes are simple, with not too many ingredients, easy techniques and fairly healthy.
I chose to make their herb-crusted salmon, a simple pan-seared fillet covered in breadcrumbs flecked with tarragon and basil. While I like cooking fish, seafood recipes can be rather irritating, in my opinion. Fillets are never the same thickness, so an ambiguous “three minutes per side,” isn’t really useful. Thankfully, Porter and Cu provide guidelines rather than a hard-and-fast rule, suggesting four to five minutes per ½-inch thickness. Good to know, as my fillets were pretty thick and required a longer cooking time.
Unfortunately, that meant the breadcrumb coating started to burn before my fish was done. I ended up transferring the fillets to the oven to finish cooking and prevent any more burning. I also thought the dish could benefit from some sort of sauce, as the breadcrumb coating left my mouth dry. I made do with quick mixture of mayonnaise, white wine vinegar and Sriracha that provided the moisture I wanted.
It seems counterintuitive, but I don’t recommend using the very best cut of salmon for this recipe. The fish I used, a wild-caught king salmon from Bob’s Seafood, was not cheap. When I spend the money on a pretty piece of fish like that, covering up its clean flavor with a heavy breadcrumb coating makes me cringe. This recipe is best suited for a piece of salmon that can benefit from a flavorful crust.
Todd Porter and Diane Cu’s Herb-crusted Salmon 4 servings
½ cup breadcrumbs
2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh tarragon
2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh basil
2 tsp. kosher or sea salt
1 tsp. freshly cracked black pepper
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted
4 8-ounce salmon fillets, rinsed and patted dry
• In a bowl, combine the breadcrumbs, tarragon, basil, salt, and pepper. Pour in the butter and mix well.
• Spread the mixture evenly over both sides of the fillets.
• Heat a saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the salmon to the pan; if the fillets still have the skin on, place them skin-side down first. Sear for 2 to 3 minutes, then flip the fillets over.
• Reduce the heat to medium and cook for another 2 to 4 minutes, until the fillets are cooked to your preferred doneness.
• Serve warm with braised Brussels sprouts alongside.
Reprinted with permission from Stewart, Tabori & Chang What’s your favorite way to jazz up a salmon fillet? Tell us in the comments section below for a chance to win a copy of Bountiful!
This article appears in September 2014.
