Good morning. J. Kenji López-Alt went full Kenji recently and delved deep into the process of dry-salting salmon to achieve firmer, juicier, less albumin-stained cooked fillets. I admire the tenacity of Kenji’s reporting and I am absolutely thrilled to report that although he requires an overnight cure for the fish, I have achieved excellent results in just one afternoon.
Which means, if I can get to the store early today, I can make Ali Slagle’s new teriyaki salmon recipe or my old jalapeño pan-fried salmon recipe (above) tonight, and eat it with steamed rice and Mark Bittman’s asparagus ribbon salad tossed in sesame oil and rice vinegar. Here we go!
As for the rest of the week. …
Monday
Eric Kim’s recipe for cold noodles with tomatoes is a magical cross between gazpacho and the Korean dish naengmyeon, and the perfect use of a pint of greenhouse cherry tomatoes from the supermarket. “Right here and in the middle of the meal felt the urgent need to come here and rant about it,” noted one subscriber to the recipe. “Super easy and super quick to make!”
Wednesday
More Asparagus: Kay Chun’s recipe for Stir-Fried Tofu and Black Pepper Asparagus is a controlled riot of flavors and textures, best done with pencil-thin skewers (and peas to counteract the heat of the sauce). Some substitute shrimp with tofu. You do you.
Thursday
I love Jamie Oliver’s recipe for black bean burgers and you can definitely make them for dinner. But when I’m pressed for time, as I often am during the week, I just fry portobello caps in a mixture of soy sauce and a little balsamic vinegar, and then I treat them like beef in a smash burger. Fantastic.
Friday
Then you can end the week with Susan Spungen’s ace recipe for a hoisin-glazed pork dish with vegetables. The glazed tenderloin is basically a shortcut to char siu, so if you (like me) know a char siu place on your way home from the office, you might just buy some and use that instead of the tenderloin. Sneaky!
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Now this is far from anything to do with brioche or the smell of freshly grated ginger, but Sally Williams has a terrifying read in The Guardian about the Clipper Round the World sailboat race. These are amateur adventure trips that cost more than $60,000 a sailor, and not everyone makes it home.
Artist Matthew Barney has a new five-channel video exhibit, “Secondary,” on view at his Long Island City gallery through June 25. It’s about football and violence, so really it’s about America. Siddartha Mitter wrote about Barney and the show for The New York Times.
Of course, you should read Tad Friend’s latest for The New Yorker, an account of a non-governmental organization set up to fight the wildlife trade by hunting down the hunters.
Finally, Jon Pareles turned me on to this new track from Fatoumata Diawara, “Blues.” Listen to it while you cook your salmon. I will return next week.
