fire in the hole.

with glee, i opened up the traditional japanese cookbook with which i am currently obsessed, "washoku," looking for a salmon recipe to make and discovered "miso-marinated broiled fish." i carefully marinated the pieces of salmon, prepared a side of ohitashi made with a new variety of slightly-savoyed spinach from weiser family farms and set out a glass for the sake and embarked.

i slid each piece of fish gingerly onto a baking sheet lined with silpat. the first three minutes went brilliantly. a slight char, everything under control. however, the next three minutes proved disastrous. apparently, slipat is not flame-proof and therefore, i had my first kitchen fire. a good firefighter i would not make since my first reaction was to save the fish instead of to put out the flames.

of course, the fish had to be tossed along with the white-ash-covered silpat and the baking sheet now coated with silicone.

my foray into washoku was no success, but at least i now have an excuse to head over to my favorite cooking store .