I have been tearing through The Improvisational Cook and although part of me wishes there was not so much repetition from A New Way to Cook, most of me is loving it. I was particularly interested in slow-roasting fish (which I think was also in ANWTC but which I had never tried) and so decided to grab some fish and slow roast it to serve with a brown-butter, vinegar and caper sauce. I figured since we now have hazelnut oil I'd also try another one of her hazelnut oil suggestions, as well.

Of course, at the market, NONE of the fish looked any good besides the salmon. I always want to like salmon, but never do, and stupidly I decided to buy some anyway. I cannot comment on the slow-roasting technique at all since I liked the salmon about as well as I have ever liked salmon. The sauce, though, was delicious and I was glad to have some whole wheat baguette (store bought, Molly) on hand to mop it up.

The real triumph, though, was the "creamed" chard. I love chard, I love creamed spinach, and this version, which was easy as pie- saute some shallot in olive oil, then add rinsed chard leaves and cook, covered, until the chard wilts, and then stir in some creme fraiche and cook a little more- got a lot of creaminess from not a lot of creme fraiche. (The few drops of hazelnut oil at the end didn't hurt, either.) It was much easier than standard creamed spinach and just as good. (And, dubious as I am of the entire concept of cookbooks that teach you how to cook without a cookbook, this recipe proves that the concept can work- I don't think I'll ever need a recipe for creamed anything again.)