Salmon Cooked in the dishwasher

(along with the rest of your lunch)

Yes, you really can poach salmon – and the rest of your lunch – in a dishwasher and, no, it doesn’t end up tasting of soap! Dishwashers heat their water during the cycle and that heat is enough to poach salmon, and gently infuse it with the flavours of aromatic herbs. My dishwasher runs a 55– 65C cycle that makes the most meltingly delicious poached salmon, and also makes extraordinary asparagus that’s very crunchy, yet oddly tender too. The trick is to keep your fish tightly wrapped in foil, don’t use detergent and run the dishwasher on the highest and hottest cycle.

You don’t have to use an empty dishwasher, but neither would I put anything particularly dirty in it in case of contamination. By the way, other household appliances that can be employed to cook food – provided you use them with caution – are hairdryers (good for cooking pizza, though it takes a long time), steel log-burner bins (make great pizza ovens), security lamps (you can just about cook pancakes on them) and irons (great for cooking bacon).

From The Extraordinary Cookbook

Published by Kyle Cathie

Photography by Georgia Glynn Smith

Ingredients

FOR THE SALMON PARCEL

1kg salmon fillet, skinned and pin-boned

olive oil

zest and juice of 2 fresh limes

a large thumb of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced into rounds

a large handful of coriander, finely chopped

salt and freshly ground black pepper

FOR THE ASPARAGUS PARCEL

1 bunch of asparagus a knob of butter salt and freshly ground black pepper

FOR THE NOODLE PARCEL

1 pack of fresh noodles 2 spring onions, finely sliced

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1 teaspoon Thai fish sauce (nam pla)

FOR THE TWO MIXED VEG PARCELS

1 red pepper, cored, deseeded and finely sliced

500g bean sprouts

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

300g bok choy (Chinese cabbage), chopped into thick slices

a few thin slices of mild red chilli

1 tablespoon soy sauce

Method

Place five double layers of foil, each 75cm square, on the work surface. Drizzle some oil onto each square of foil and spread it over the surface using a pastry brush.

Put the salmon fillet in the middle of one square and fold up the edges of the foil a little to make a bowl. Sprinkle over the lime zest and juice, place the ginger slices on top, then scatter the coriander on top and season. Bring the sides of the foil together, pinching to make a watertight package.

Follow the same method for the asparagus and noodle parcels, and divide the veg between two parcels, ensuring that the parcels are flat rather than round, otherwise the heat won’t get to the food for long enough. Place your packages on the top rack of the dishwasher, choose the hottest and longest cycle (the parcels should cook for about 1 hour), and don’t add any detergent!

At the end of the cycle, remove the parcels. Unwrap the parcels at the table and let everyone dig in.

for the salmon parcel