This is for those days when you don’t have all day.

The best and most important part about food is crispy skin. Period. Full stop. DASSIT.

As you can tell, I was feeling hella healthy this day. I had Popeye’s the day before, you see, and life is about balance. Quinoa that tastes not like sand, and kale that tastes not like bootleg collards – soon come.

A NOTE ON OILS:

• Grapeseed oil has a fairly high smoke point, meaning it will get hella hot before it smokes and burns your food. This is CRUCIAL for crispiness!! Here’s a handy chart if you can’t just take my word for it. Vegetable oil also has a high smoke point but grapeseed oil is healthier (I read that somewhere but I’m not a doctor yet so don’t @ me).
• If you’re just building a pantry, I recommend getting grapeseed oil for steaks stir fries, fishes and other crispy things that don’t require deep frying. You should also keep vegetable oil for when you are deep frying because it’s way cheaper and you’re already FRYING IT. Then, get a really good extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) for when you want it to taste good cooking veggies like best kale ever (soon come), and salads and etc. I really like the California brand that you can find at Safeway (West Coast stand up!) and Teeter (East Coast saddahn).

Recipe

1. Defrost your salmon if it’s frozen – ALL THE WAY TO ROOM TEMP. Make sure there aren’t scales – sometimes the frozen filets aren’t scaled which I will just never understand because why did I go buy these nicely sectioned freeze-dry packaged filets just to have to scale them!?

• If it’s not, hold the filet in one hand and lower your hand into the sink so you don’t have scales flying all over your kitchen. Take another sharp knife and drag it along the skin in the opposite direction of the scales. You’ll know you’re in the right place when they start to come off. Don’t forget the corners.
• PRO TIP: if you get salmon from behind the counter and freeze it yourself or just to cook in the next couple of days, ask them to descale. They will.

2. Dry the salmon off on all sides with a paper towel.
3. Then, do the ‘only trick to crispy skinned salmon’ as hidden in this three page rant – take a knife, drag it across the skin to collect moisture. Wipe the moisture off the knife. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
4. Season. Do you hear me? SALT. PEP. PAP. DASSIT All four sides! You can honestly conquer the world with these three things as a yung chef.

• AS USUAL, you can 100% switch this up – sometimes I add chili powder or cayenne if I’m feeling caliente that day. Once, I used one of those seafood seasonings and the basics in my life loved it but Foodalisa was unimpressed. Do you though.

5. Throw down your grapeseed oil in a nonstick or cast iron on medium. Put the salmon skin side down and leave it the hell alone. It’ll shrink up and the skin will start to come up off the pan because it has crisped up. You don’t want this to happen too fast so if you’re nervous, turn the heat down.

• If the skin sticks, use a spatula to gently lift the salmon and skin from the pan. Using the handle, tilt the pan towards you and away from you to move your oil around and let the salmon back down.

6. Once your skin is crispidy, turn your salmon over for 3 mins max and then roll to one side and then the other for even less time. You want color on the salmon, but at this point it is likely cooked through. It’s done when it flakes with a fork.

This whole process needn’t take more than 15 minutes. Once you get the hang of it, this is great to keep in your back pocket for busy nights when you want a healthy something.

This is a fillet take on Food52’s ‘Samke Harra’ – a Lebanese preparation of whole fish. The sauce for this is different from the usual Mama Mona style in that you cook the mix first. I’ve added my own twist, and eliminated the oven prep for this altogether since it’s hot as hell outside. I love the walnuts in this!

The nice thing about recipes like this one is they are variable – if you have parsley and no cilantro, that’s cool! If you have almonds and no walnuts, that’s cool too! As long as you have the major components, and you season, it’ll taste good.

Also, you can use a fish filet of your choice! Trout here works well, or a sea bass if you fancy, but you can really use any white fish and be happy. YOU the one ordering. Choose what you like or what’s fresh at the fish counter that day, or experiment with something new! I used two fillets of striped sea bass and BOI. It hit.

Recipe

1. Add all the ingredients up to the olive oil to a food processor. I only put as much olive oil as I needed into the food processor to get it going, the rest I’ll add to the pan later. Give the mixture one or two rough pulses. DASSIT.

2. Add the mixture to a pan on medium-low along with the rest of your olive oil and let it rock, giving it a stir now and again while you prepare the fish. I didn’t take it off until the onions and jalapeno were getting golden. If you’re using fresh garlic, make sure you don’t turn the heat up and burn it!
3. Dry your fish off with paper towels. DO NOT PUT WET THINGS INTO HOT OIL. I put the filets on a paper towel, dry it off, season it on one side on the paper towel and then add it seasoning-side down to the pan and throw the paper towel away. Then, I season the other side. Saves a dish!
4. Sprinkle some coarse salt, pepper, and cumin on both sides
5. I have perfected how I want to get an evenly crispy skin on the fish, but here’s my best shot: In a cast iron skillet or non-stick skillet add some grapeseed oil and heat on med-high, lay the fish skin side UP for only three or four minutes.
6. Trying your very best not to break your fillet, turn it over skin side down. Try to make sure there’s oil underneath the fish before you turn it. If it looks like the oil in the pan is excessive, drain some after you flip the fish. AFTER YOU FLIP THE FISH.
7. Now, spoon your walnut-onion-jalapeno goodness onto your fish.

If you have some leftover, this would be a great way to make more fish later in the week and you can just add the sauce!

8. Leave it for 7 minutes or so, until the skin releases from the bottom.
9. Flip it BACK over onto the plate so the skin is skn side up and doesn’t get drenched in sauce (look if you’re not into crispness, as I clearly am, this doesn’t have to be a big deal aight)
10. Spoon the sauce left in the pan on EVERYTHING!!!!