Recipe: Sesame-crusted salmon

I’m not a big one for following plans. In fact, the very act of changing, of tweaking an idea, brings its own pleasure. In cooking, this can lead to strange doings, botched timing, but also, on occasion, some happy, crunchy, yums-yums results. (In baking it almost always leads to disaster, which is why my family is grateful that I don’t bake anymore.)

So the other night, I was in my post-work rush to get dinner on the table. And for some reason it always seems to be when I am late, or harried, or there are whiny hungry kids running underfoot that some new idea will strike. Leave me home on a slow Sunday afternoon with Regina Belle crooning out of the iPod, and I can follow a recipe to the last teaspoon. I can chop, and stir, and make things bubble, all with clear-headed direction and nary an impulse to lead me astray. But give me a hectic mid-week pre-dinner kitchen and my hands start twitching in tandem with my mind. What about…What if….Just a little of this maybe…

So there was the salmon in the fridge, marinating in my auto-pilot mixture of soy sauce, lemon, ginger and dash of sesame oil. A few minutes under the broiler, first the skin side, then flip and do the top side, and there you go – healthy, post-work meal. Why mess with it? Well, because …

I’ve always loved those crunchy sesame coatings that restaurants use, often with tuna, but also with salmon or some other meaty fish. How do you do that? How hard could it be? Twitch, twitch, twitch. How do you get the seeds to stick to the salmon? Can you still broil it? Hummmmmm.

I took a few minutes to cruise through some basic Internet recipes. I saw everything from cornstarch and egg white mixtures to wasabi to honey. I liked the honey idea. I hardly ever cook with honey. It’s not a flavor that I take to in most situations. Often honey can be big and sweet in a gaudy, Bette Midler kind of way. But that is the pleasure of deciding that maybe you’ve been wrong, maybe you need to reconsider, perhaps you should give Wind Beneath My Wings another listen. Toasted sourdough with butter and honey is good. Especially with a cup of Earl Grey tea. Yes, butter and honey. That’s a good combination.

So here is what I came up with flying around the kitchen on a recent Wednesday night. It was dark when I finished and we were already running late, so I didn’t get very good pictures, but trust me, it was very pretty. And better yet, serious yums.