FOOD NEWS
The Cheapest Way To Bread Salmon Is Also The Crispiest
By Elaina Friedman
Adrienne Cheatham's cookbook "Sunday Best" features a recipe for baked salmon with a crispy brioche topper, an idea she picked up from her time at the NYC seafood restaurant Le Bernardin. Her method creates the crispiest breaded salmon, which also happens to be the cheapest.
Unlike many crispy fish recipes, Cheatham's method doesn't require a creamy layer between the breading and the fish. Instead, she says that white stuff (also known as albumin) that leaks out of your salmon filet while cooking serves as "the perfect glue for toasty brioche," which means buying other ingredients isn't necessary.
When sliced very thinly and trimmed to fit a skinless salmon filet, the light, buttery French bread gets golden brown in a pan with butter, vegetable oil, garlic, and thyme, which also serves as a basting liquid for the fish. When the bread is toasted and ready to flip, Cheatham sticks it in the oven to finish the cooking process.
When testing the recipe, Cheatham found that brioche wasn't the only bread that worked as a one-ingredient layer of crispiness. "I've tried everything," she told Epicurious. "I've never met a bread that didn't work well with this, unless it's something super crumbly, like cornbread."