I spent the weekend thinking about my herb garden. How much deck space do I give the cilantro? Where might the verbena and the borage really thrive? Thai basil: Big pot or medium one? These springtime real estate deals beget the pestos and relishes, the salads and salsas, and the tisanes, tinctures and fragrant, leafy green garlands that will enliven my cooking all summer long.
One plant that I’m really feeling this season is dill. I love throwing feathery fistfuls of it into anything that could use some freshness. I’m nuts about it even when it goes to seed, adding the crowns to pots of shrimp, mussels and clams. And I know I’ll be using an overflowing cup of it to make Naz Deravian’s baked salmon and dill rice.
The dill-flecked rice is baked until most of the water is absorbed. Then salmon fillets, smeared with a honey-turmeric glaze, are set on top and everything is returned to the oven, until the salmon is tender and silky and the rice fluffy and fragrant. Although Naz doesn’t call for it in so many words, squeezing the juice from the zested lemon over the fish at the end is a bright complement to the herbaceous earthiness. For me this year, like every year, it’s herb girl summer.
Featured Recipe
Baked Salmon and Dill Rice
More food for thought
Shami kebab: “The Rolls-Royce of Desi kebabs,” these traditional beef-and-chickpea patties have crispy shells that hide a soft, richly spiced interior. Zainab Shah’s exquisite version is perfect to make in advance — you can freeze the uncooked patties, then slip them, still frozen, into your hot pan. Make a big batch for Eid al-Adha, which starts tomorrow evening, and celebrate in style.
Miso-honey chicken with asparagus: Everyday chicken thighs are utterly transformed in Yossy Arefi’s simple sheet-pan dinner — first by being tossed with a sweet and umami-rich glaze, then by being broiled until they turn irresistibly sticky and golden. Even better, the chicken is cooked alongside spears of asparagus, which caramelize under the broiler’s intense heat, singeing beautifully at the edges.
Pea and ricotta frittata: In her torte-like take on frittata, Clare De Boer mixes eggs with heavy cream and Parmesan, then bakes it all low and slow in a cake pan until the center goes from “swampy to jiggly.” Err on the side of underbaking to get the most custardy texture, because the residual heat from the pan will finish the job.
Spring minestrone with kale and pasta: Kay Chun streamlines the usually long-simmered Italian classic, adding quick-cooking leafy greens and sliced asparagus. Topped with store-bought pesto and Parmesan cheese, it’s a brothy elixir that feels both buoyant and satisfying.
Strawberry almond cakes: These tender, golden confections with roasted strawberries dotting the marzipan-y filling are a riff on French financiers. Or you could use fresh raspberries, which lend crunch as well as bursts of juicy goodness.
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That’s all for now. I’ll see you on Monday.
Melissa Clark has been writing her column, A Good Appetite, for The Times’s Food section since 2007. She creates recipes for New York Times Cooking, makes videos and reports on food trends. She is the author of 45 cookbooks, and counting.
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