Baked Salmon with Brown Rice Egg Fried Rice

• 227 g salmon fillet (about 8 oz), skin on or off
• 213 g day-old cooked brown rice, cold from the fridge
• 3 large eggs
• 150 g frozen whole green beans
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 14 g neutral oil (canola), weighed
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt, for the salmon
• 1/4 tsp black pepper, for the salmon
• 1 tbsp kosher salt, for the blanching water

Method

1. 1
   Start the oven and the water

   Set the oven to 400F and put a medium pot of water on to boil with the tablespoon of salt in it. Line a sheet pan with foil. Getting both heat sources going now is what makes the timing work - everything else happens while these come up to temperature.

2. 2
   Mise en place - everything in bowls

   This is the whole game. Once the cooking starts there is no time to chop, and on an electric cooktop walking away means the pan overheats. Set out bowls with: the eggs beaten with a pinch of salt; the garlic minced; the soy sauce measured into a small dish; the sesame oil in its own small dish; the canola weighed and ready. Then break up the rice with your fingers until every grain is separate. Squeeze the clumps apart. Clumped rice steams instead of frying - this is the most important prep step in the recipe.

3. 3
   Blanch and dry the green beans

   Drop the green beans into the boiling water for 2-3 minutes, just until bright green and heated through. Drain hard in a colander, shaking out as much water as you can, then spread on a paper towel and pat genuinely dry. Cut into roughly 1-inch pieces. Dry is a real requirement, not a nicety. Wet beans hitting a nonstick pan on an electric burner will drop the temperature and steam your rice.

4. 4
   Salmon into the oven

   Pat the salmon dry, season with the salt and pepper, and set it on the foil-lined pan. Into the 400F oven for 12-14 minutes - it's done when it flakes with gentle pressure and the center is just barely translucent. Start your timer and move straight to the rice. The salmon needs no attention and will finish right around when the rice does.

5. 5
   Preheat the pan

   Large straight-walled nonstick, medium-high, empty pan, 2-3 minutes. Electric smooth-tops preheat slower than you expect - give it the full time. Test with a drop of water: it should skitter across the surface, not sit and boil.

6. 6
   Eggs first, barely set

   Add half the canola. Pour in the beaten eggs, let them set undisturbed for about 15 seconds, then scramble with a spatula until just barely set - still glossy and slightly underdone. Get them out into a bowl immediately. They finish cooking later when they go back in. Fully cooking them now means rubbery eggs at the end.

7. 7
   Garlic, briefly

   Add the rest of the canola, then the garlic. Fifteen to twenty seconds only - you're perfuming the oil, not cooking the garlic. It burns fast and burnt garlic will run through the entire dish.

8. 8
   Rice in - spread and wait

   All of the rice into the pan. Spread it into an even layer and leave it completely alone for 60-90 seconds. Your instinct will be to stir. Don't. Then toss once, spread flat again, and leave it again. Repeat two or three times over about 4-5 minutes. You're looking for the grains to dry out and pick up a little color. Contact time is the point.

9. 9
   Green beans through

   Add the blanched green beans and toss through. They're already cooked, so this is 30-45 seconds just to heat them and let them pick up a little oil.

10. 10
    Soy sauce down the side

    Pour the soy sauce around the edge of the pan, not into the middle of the rice. Hitting the hot metal makes it sizzle and caramelize rather than just wetting the grains. Toss to distribute evenly.

11. 11
    Eggs back, sesame oil, off heat

    Kill the heat. Return the eggs, breaking them up with the spatula and folding through the rice. Add the sesame oil and toss once. Off heat is not optional for the sesame oil - it goes bitter over direct heat.

12. 12
    Plate

    Pull the salmon from the oven, plate the fried rice, and set the salmon alongside. Eat immediately - fried rice does not improve sitting.