In One and Done, senior test kitchen editor Jesse Szewczyk uses one pan—like a Dutch oven, sheet pan, or cast-iron skillet—to make meals you'll come back to again and again.
Search the internet for easy weeknight recipes and you’ll likely stumble across the term dump dinner—a rather unfortunate name for a meal that comes together by simply dumping all of the ingredients into one cooking vessel and letting it go. This recipe borrows that same time-saving mentality of throwing everything into a skillet at once, while using a handful of hardworking ingredients to ensure a flavorful result. Garlic, ginger, soy sauce, butter, and sesame oil form the base of a bold poaching liquid, topped with tomatoes and skinless salmon fillets. (Feel free to use a flaky white fish, such as cod, if you’d prefer.) The cold pan gets transferred to the stovetop, brought to a simmer, and partially covered with a lid. As it cooks, the tomatoes burst, creating a comforting, umami-rich broth that’s perfect for serving over steamed rice or alongside crusty bread. It’s a hands-off dinner that comes together in less than 30 minutes—and shows that poaching fish is not only a gentle cooking technique, but it can yield a truly spectacular result as well.
Recipe information
Total Time
30 minutes
Yield
4 servings
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Season four 6-oz. skinless salmon fillets on all sides with kosher salt. Combine 5 garlic cloves, finely grated, one 1" piece ginger, peeled, finely grated, ⅓ cup soy sauce, 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into pieces, 2 Tbsp. sugar, 2 Tbsp. mirin (sweet Japanese rice wine), and 2 tsp. toasted sesame oil in a high-sided skillet and stir to dissolve sugar. Scatter 1½ lb. mixed tomatoes, halved or cut into wedges depending on size, over bottom of pan and nestle in salmon fillets, making sure they are in contact with the pan’s surface (some tomatoes on top of the salmon are okay). Set pan over high heat and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium, cover pan partially with a lid, and simmer until salmon is cooked through and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of a fillet registers 145°, 12–14 minutes.
Step 2
Meanwhile, cut 3 scallions, pale and dark green parts only, crosswise into 2"–3" pieces. Cut each piece in half lengthwise, then in half or thirds again to create matchsticks. Place scallions in a large bowl of ice water and let sit 10 minutes. Drain scallions and transfer to a kitchen towel or paper towels and pat dry.
Step 3
Scatter curled scallions over salmon in pan just before serving.
