Even after I had learned how to cook most things, I had no idea how to deal with a piece of salmon. It was embarrassing, but I was sufficiently terrified by the idea of cooking, not just salmon, but any fish, that I almost never tried. I was scared of it being raw, but I hated it overcooked. So I just skipped the whole thing, which is really a shame when you live in the  Pacific Northwest.

Enter that saviour of timid chefs everywhere, Mark Bittman! All of his recipes tend to have a comforting, you-can-do-this sort of tone, with simple techniques and ingredients. I discovered a stovetop-to-oven method of cooking salmon fillets in his book The Minimalist Cooks at Home, and it worked so well I wouldn’t cook salmon any other way for years. It repeatedly produced fish that was moist, tender and cooked all the way through. It’s simple: crust the fish with herbs and spices, melt butter in an oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat, add the fish seasoning-side down and cook one minute. Flip and cook one more minute. Put the pan in the oven and cook about five minutes or until done how you like. Easy.

Over time I’ve mucked around with both the cooking method and the seasoning from the original recipe. I now usually just panfry my salmon in a nonstick skillet at medium heat, and flavor it with cumin and salt. Every once in a while, though, it’s fun to revisit Bittman’s original flavorings of rosemary, orange and fennel.

Rosemary is one of the herbs I’m never likely to run out of – the bush under our deck is over three feet high and four feet wide. I always pick more than I need just to keep the shrub in check a bit. For this recipe I probably used the leaves from two six-inch twigs.

The rosemary gets chopped and mixed with the zest of one orange…

…and about a teaspoon of fennel seed, crushed in a mortar (or spice grinder if that’s easier).

Mix in some coarse salt and pepper, and spread the spices over the salmon fillets. Heat butter or oil in a skillet and carefully lay the pieces spice-side down, hopefully not spilling the topping all over the pan. You want the seasonings to form a nice crust over the fish.

Cooking just on the stovetop, I probably keep the fillets in the pan about six minutes, flipping occasionally. I like my salmon a bit rare inside – if you like yours more done I’d use the oven method, or turn down the heat so the fish doesn’t overcook on the outside.

We ate this with roasted beets and parsnips, and a salad with a strong mustard dressing. The flavors are bold and a bit sweet, and I loved how the orange in the fish went with the beets.

When I first brought home a library copy of David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop (shortly before we bought our own copy – it didn’t take long), one of the very first recipes we opened it to was this one: a custard-based ice cream with orange zest and crushed Sichuan peppercorns, wow! Jon’s been wanting to make it ever since, and we finally got our chance. We had friends over (fresh ice cream wants an audience) and made Chinese pork ribs and scallion breads, followed by this ice cream for dessert.

It was amazing: rich and creamy, with a deep aroma of fresh oranges, with each bite finishing on a tingle of Sichuan pepper. I can only imagine what it would be like with really fresh, numbing peppercorns.

Also, since it called for the zest of four whole oranges, we had a lovely excuse to have fresh squeezed orange juice the next morning.

Orange-Sichuan Pepper Ice Cream

adapted from Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompanimentsby David Lebovitz

• 3 Tbsp Sichuan peppercorns
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 oranges
• 6 large egg yolks

Coarsely crush the peppercorns in a mortar. Put them in a saucepan with the milk, ½ cup of the cream, and the sugar, and heat until warm. Zest the oranges directly into the pan. Once warm, cover, remove from the heat and let steep for one hour. After steeping, warm it back up.

Pour the rest of the cream into a bowl. Set a strainer over it.

In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm milk mixture in, whisking all the time, then pour it all back into the saucepan. Stir over medium heat until it thickens and coats your spatula. Pour through the strainer into the cream and stir. Cool over an ice bath and refrigerate until ready to run the ice cream maker. Freeze as directed.

David recommends serving this with a red wine-poached rhubarb compote - I think we shall have to try this when our rhubarb comes up. But we ate it straight and it was sublime.