Simpliest. Dinner. Ever.

Tonight I am on-call.  For those of you who have never experienced this particular form of workplace happiness, it translates to a night filled with tossing and turning and interspersed with the ear-piercing beep of a pager.  I remember wishing work would come to me.  I got what I asked for - at all hours on the night.

On nights like these when any activity is game for interruption, I've found that if I am to avoid Chinese take-out (nothing wrong with that, except that I am on-call for a week, and 7 days of Cashew Chicken is a bit much for anyone) I'd better find some easy ways to feed myself.  One of the simplest is cooking en Papillote.   This is so easy, I'm not entirely sure it counts as cooking, but it will have to do tonight.

En Papillote means simply "in paper", although in my case it's in aluminum foil ("En Alumanium"?).  As the food cooks, the aluminum foil traps the steam produced from the contents regulating the temperature and keeping it moist.  A "wet" method of cooking, the food is heated via conductive transfer from hot water vapor and convective heat transfer by the upward movement of the water vapor.   Because it is a wet cooking method, it works well with delicate dishes like fish that have a tendency to dry out.

I hope you enjoy this dish , especially on those crazy days . . .

<3

Laura


Lemon Rosemary Salmon En Papillote

 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Cut open the salmon package and slide the salmon on to the aluminum foil.

Sprinkle with Rosemary and Lemon Pepper until lightly coated.  Fold the aluminum foil around the fish forming a closed pouch.

Place the aluminum foil wrapped fish into the oven.  (Note: place the aluminum foil seam up to avoid salmon juice all over the bottom of your oven.)  

After 20 minutes, take the salmon out of the oven, unwrap the aluminum foil and placed on a bed of pre-washed mixed spring greens. (Yes, I am that lazy.)

See?  Even faster than Chinese take out, and so tasty.  The best part?  Clean-up consists of washing the plate.



**Note, the following values are approximate:
Time: 2 minutes prep, 20 minutes bake
Cost: ~ $3 per serving (Salmon filets purchased at Costco
Calories: ~ 300

Domestic Chemistry

Have you ever started in on a recipe only to realize you were missing a key ingredient?  How about follow a recipe and have an unexpected outcome?  Or spill a cup of coffee on a white skirt?  Is there a way to predictably deal with these situations - to sort the bad recipes from the good ones, to have a high probability of success when making a substitution in a recipe, to determine the best way to deal with a stain?  In many cases, the answer is probably yes.  Learning the rules to make accurate predictions may be complicated, but they are repeatable - it boils down to chemistry.

Why does bread rise?  How does sugar caramelize?  Does it matter what kind of flour I use for this recipe?  What is the best way to get ink out of clothing?  How about to remove mold from tile?  What products really work to keep hair healthy?  From baking to cleaning to beauty, the natural laws at play in the world continue to operate in the kitchen.  By understanding some basic principles of chemistry, biology, and physics, the domestic chemist can learn to navigate the household with fewer domestic mishaps.