Unwrap a simple salmon dinner

The outstanding new cookbook, Milk Street Cookish: Throw It Together (Little, Brown/Hachette, $44), by Boston cooking school teacher Christopher Kimball includes a generous choice of fish recipes, particularly for salmon.

Kimball, a multi-faceted foodie who founded Cook’s Magazine and now runs Milk Street school, a magazine and radio and TV shows, enjoys “bold, easy cooking from around the world.”

To accompany this salmon dish, he offers four salads. Besides his fennel and herb combo (see below), there’s an avocado-coriander mixture; a blend of shredded apple, carrot and horseradish and a cucumber and green onion mixture.

Preparation is easy for the recipes in Milk Street Cookish, because Kimball limits ingredients to six and doesn’t dirty a lot of utensils.

FOIL-WRAPPED SALMON

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

4 centre-cut salmon fillets, 6 ounces / 175 g each (1 to 1- 1/4 inches or 2 to 3 cm thick)

1/4 cup (60 mL) soy sauce Olive or vegetable oil Freshly ground pepper

DIRECTIONS

Using a pie plate, marinate fish, skin side up, in the soy sauce for 15 minutes.

Heat a heavy, 12-inch (30 cm) frying pan over high heat for 5 minutes.

Place salmon, skin side down, on a lightly oiled sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with pepper. Cover with another sheet of foil and crimp edges so fish is enclosed in a package.

Place package in heated pan on hot burner, reduce heat to medium-high and cook for 5 minutes, rotating the pan.

Remove package, cool for 5 minutes, open carefully and serve.

FRESH FENNEL AND HERB SALAD

DIRECTIONS

In a medium bowl, whisk 3 tablespoons (45 mL) extravirgin olive oil with 2 tablespoons (30 mL) unseasoned rice vinegar, 2 teaspoons (10 mL) white miso and 1 teaspoon (5 mL) granulated sugar.

Trim one large fennel bulb, cut in half lengthwise, core and slice thinly crosswise. Combine with 1/2 cup (125 mL) lightly packed chopped fresh tarragon, mint or basil. Toss, then season with salt and freshly ground pepper.