So here’s what I had waiting for me when I returned at about 6pm from the conference.
My partner looked through several books and settled on a couple of recipes in J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Food Lab. I 100% promise this was an unprompted and unmanipulated choice that shows my partner’s savvy understanding of cookery and cookbooks. That is to say, not only was this pan-roasted salmon and basil-caper relish completely doable within an hour without a lot of hassle, Lopez-Alt’s recipes are unusually reliable in the sense that what they say procedurally about the cookery and its time frame are exceptionally precise. It’s the whole point of the book, it’s his brand. So everything I was talking about this morning is moot in this case. (Though I do think the photograph of the finished dish is cheating a little bit because that looks like chard to me on one side of the fish.)
She also picked some braised leeks, which I was very happy to do—and which were very doable because they went in the oven well in advance of firing the salmon—and some braised asparagus (which was easy to do at the same time as the salmon.
I was also super happy with the picks because the tastes went well together (almost classically so) and because it made for a beautifully spring-appropriate meal. I really love the flavor of leeks in almost anything, and asparagus is one of those always-good vegetables that once upon a time used to be a very season-limited pleasure but is now a year-round thing in a way that’s slightly uncomfortable almost.
The only cookery I think I didn’t quite get right, and it really doesn’t matter how accurate the book’s instructions are in this respect, was getting a deeply crispy skin on the salmon while not hammering it otherwise. That is a job for professionals (and professional equipment)—it takes having the right cookware, not being afraid of the high heat at the start and then going down fast, and not hesitating to take it off quickly and let it finish cooking off the heat. It’s one reason that on all the cookery competition shows tasters are always impressed with someone who cooks the fish perfectly within the time constraints. But it’s also the reason that fish is often the pick when you don’t have a lot of time—it has to cook quickly most of the time or you have messed it up. The relish in this case put a lot of flavor in and maybe helped with the slight overcooking of the salmon.
Anyway, I felt like I was in good hands here. Seems like we should do this again to keep the column fresh!
Would love to do that again. It was fun! And I knew you would be up to the challenge. Glad to hear I made some practical and good choices. It comes from years of dining with you and benefitting from your culinary skills.