I wish I could say I’m the kind of person who has always loved cooking. Who has always felt natural and comfortable in the kitchen. Who can magically put together a meal with whatever I find in my pantry and fridge. But I’m not. I actually didn’t even have the desire to really learn how to cook until 2020. We were all stuck at home, and my favorite restaurants were closed or open in a limited capacity. What else was I going to do?
I spent the next five years pushing myself in the kitchen, trying to nail simple recipes and eventually branching out to make some of my favorite Persian dishes like ghormeh sabzi and fesenjan.
But when I got pregnant last fall, in a matter of weeks, all food grossed me out. I spent the next nine months embracing my identity as a Seamless and DoorDash enthusiast, so it’s not surprising that my cooking skills are a bit rusty at the moment.
And for some reason, instead of getting back in the saddle with an easy recipe, I decided to completely make something up and just see how it goes. To my surprise and delight, my cooking experiment actually went really well — just ask my in-laws who happily went for seconds — and now I’m going to share the recipes with all of you.
Before you do anything, heat the oven to 400°F.
Oh, and sorry for any typos. I published this from my phone on the beach, and I’m working on not overanalyzing every single newsletter I send.
It’s all about the sauce. Admittedly, I went rogue with the measurements and kept tasting the sauce throughout, adjusting accordingly. I don’t want to make up measurements for you, but I do want to encourage you to trust your tastebuds. If you feel uncomfortable with an ingredient list that doesn’t include numbers, send me a message, and I’ll share my estimates.
Sauce:
Yuzu ponzu
Mirin
Rice wine vinegar
Miso paste
Sesame oil
Minced ginger
Furikake
Salmon:
I bought almost three pounds of salmon for five people because we love to have leftovers and well-marinated salmon tastes great the next day.
Place the salmon in a Pyrex and pour the sauce over the salmon. Sprinkle furikake on top of the salmon after the sauce is poured into the Pyrex.
Put the dish in the oven and set a timer for 20 minutes. Check the salmon at 15 minutes, slicing through the middle to see if it’s cooked to your liking. I prefer my salmon medium rare, and 22 minutes was the perfect amount.
It also depends on the oven. With my oven at home, it only takes 17 minutes. It just happened to take a bit longer in the oven I used for this salmon. Trust your gut!
This is arguably the most simple part of the meal. I bought yellow corn grits and followed the instructions on the package. Dump one cup of grits and four cups of water into a pot. Boil it. Once it starts to boil, turn it down and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes, longer if you want softer grits. Stir it throughout so it doesn’t stick to the bottom. At the end, I added in a slab (perhaps two tablespoons — sorry, I eyeballed it) of Isigny Ste Mère salted butter.
Slice zucchini into thin circles and spread the circles out on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Sprinkle olive oil and salt on top.
Stick the salmon and zucchini in the oven at the same time. They can cook at the same temperature. The zucchini took a bit longer than the salmon did. If you can, try to slice the zucchini in a relatively uniform way. Some of my slices were thinner than others, and they got a bit crispy. It didn’t bother me, but it’s worth noting.
There are no rules with the chimichurri, in my opinion. Let yourself have fun and taste intermittently. Use this as an opportunity to use the herbs you have. Again, the portions are up to you. Go with god (and your gut). It’s not that deep.
I used:
Scapes
Mint
Scallions
Chives
Sesame oil
Lemon juice
Miren
Rice vinegar
If you’re not the kind of person who likes to improvise and taste things when they cook, this newsletter might annoy you. If you’re the kind of person who just wants to make sure they have the right ingredients, I got you. Rules are meant to be broken, and cooking is supposed to be fun.
Thanks for being here. Happy eating. 💛
xx
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