Salmon with couscous-carrot-raisin pilaf

 

If a recipe gives you pause, do you give that pause back — as in give it a pass? Sometimes I do, although if the pause is caused by wondering do those flavors really go together, I'm more likely to give it a whirl in hopes of a pleasant aha moment than if I question methodology. In this case, I was wondering if baking couscous in a pan it doesn't specify being greased would actually work. It works just fine for baked rice, so I decided to go ahead with it simply because it looked so easy, and because salmon happened to be on a great sale at Lunds that week.

Salmon with couscous pilaf

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living Everyday Food, March 2005. Serves 2.

Ingredients

½ pound carrots (about 3 medium), peeled, sliced in half lengthwise, and cut into diagonal ⅛-inch pieces
½ cup couscous
¼ cup slivered almonds
¼ cup golden raisins
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro
½ tablespoon olive oil
⅝ cup water
2 salmon fillets, 6 to 8 ounces each
Lemon for serving, optional

Method

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a small, shallow baking dish (I used an 8-by-10-ish), combine couscous, almonds, raisins, cilantro, olive oil, ⅝ cup water, ¾ teaspoon salt and ⅛ teaspoon pepper.

Place salmon fillets on top of couscous mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Cover with foil and bake for 30 to 35 minutes until salmon is opaque. Plate salmon, fluff couscous mixture and serve along side salmon with lemon wedges.

Rating: This recipe is super fast to make, particularly if you've prepped the carrots ahead, and it tastes just fine. Would I make it again? If you asked me right as I was trying to plate it, I would have given you an emphatic no, because underneath some reasonably fluffable couscous, there's a layer of crunch you can only chip off the pan, which immediately triggers demerits. It diminished my ability to enjoy the dish, knowing that some serious pan clean-up awaited. I always factor clean-up time when considering if a recipe is a fast fix.

But I have to say, that pan wasn't so horrible afterward after a good soak. I used my Dansk enamel Kobenstyle pan that my mother gave me years ago, and much like the Le Creuset pans I sprung for decades ago when I could least afford them, I am always astounded what a soak and some baking soda will do in fairly short order. Still not convinced about the methodology of this recipe given the layer of crunch, but it was a fast prep meal.

Many years after I bought those enamel pans, I learned my mother was very upset with me because I had splurged on cookware instead of buying a proper dining room table for our dining-room-less one-bedroom apartment. We entertained small groups just fine; young, poorly paid journalists are not fussy about tablecloth-covered card tables surrounded by mismatched chairs so long as they're getting treated to decent home-cooked food and free booze. I don't think the dining table we eventually bought qualified as proper in my mother's mind either, since I later realized she really coveted a dark cherry French Provincial style dining set for herself (and by extension coveted it for me, despite that not being my style). Poor honey. She was a good sport all those years with the round oak table my dad bought for $5 at a farm auction while Mother was standing beside him and didn't even realize he was bidding. It was perfectly serviceable with three leaves, just not the bit of formal loveliness she always had in her mind's eye.

I stand by my pans and priorities. But I wish she could have had a table that met her vision.

Is there any moral to all that rambling? Maybe you do you. But if you don't have decent pans, be prepared to order takeout to serve on your beautiful table when you can't get food out of the pan.