This Five-Star Salmon Recipe Is Kind of a Big Dill

New York Times

2 days ago

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.
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