Jennifer Segal’s Slow Roasted Salmon (Ocean Trout) with French Herb Salsa

December 8, 2025.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 6

I hate to admit it – and rarely do – though there are go-tos I have when the cooking pressure is on and we have guests for lunch. (Generally speaking we don’t cook many dishes twice.)

This is one of them.

It’s a winner on every level.

It is simple.

It looks incredible: looks that betray its simplicity. Think elegant, yet rustic: provincial.

And predictably: it tastes awesome.

As a starter. As a side. With a salad. With baby potatoes. With dressed-up fries.

Really anyway you can serve it, it’s genius.

There is a reason I’ve plated this half a dozen times at least.

(Which is all I am admitting to!)

Ingredients

1kg salmon (I use ocean trout) filet with skin, pin boned
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3/4 tsp sea salt flakes

French Herb Salsa

3 tbsp finely diced shallot
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp finely chopped Italian parsley
1 tbsp finely chopped chervil
1 tbsp finely chopped chives
1 tbsp finely chopped basil
1 tsp finely chopped tarragon
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp sea salt flakes
Freshly ground pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 105c.
Place the salmon on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle the salt evenly over the top. Place in the oven and roast for 40 – 50 minutes, until the fish begins to flake in the thickest part of the filet.
For the salsa, combine the shallot and vinegar for 15 minutes. In a separate bowl combine the herbs, olive oil, salt and a few grinds of pepper.
Flake the salmon into large rustic chunks (on the skin); combine the herb mixture with the shallot mixture, testing the amount of vinegar you need.
Dress over the fish and serve warm.

Jeanine Donofrio’s Basil Pesto Pasta

March 15, 2025.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 1 cup/8

Traditional basil pesto is true comfort.

It’s simple. Moorish. Entirely satisfying.

There is nothing revolutionary in this recipe; it’s down the line.

Though in our search of the simplest – and greatest – pastas, I have no choice but to type it up.

As part of Nat’s search for the world’s best pasta, it’s not going to be a finalist.

Though that isn’t the point.

We all need a (growing) repitoir of simple pastas for a late Saturday lunch. Grab a few ingredients from the shops.

Even better, we have basil aplenty in our modest herb garden and we always have pine nuts and grated Parmesan in the fridge.

The point instead is that you can feed eight on a dime. And in a way that eyes will lock, people will smile, you did this on a whim and satisfaction levels are sky-high given the circumstances: dinner on a whim.

Ingredients

1/2 c toasted pine nuts
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 garlic clove
1/2 tsp sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 c basil leaves
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
1/4 c fresh grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra to serve
Pasta, cooked al dente to serve

Method

In a good processor, combine the toasted pine nuts, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper and pulse until well chopped.
Add the basil and pulse until combined
With the food processor running, drizzle in the olive oil and pulse until combined. Add the Parmesan cheese and pulse to briefly combine. For a smoother pesto, add more olive oil.
Serve with al dente pasta, more Parmesan, open a red, sit back and smile.

Jennifer Segal’s Big Italian Salad

September 3, 2023.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 6

I really don’t think you can get any more classier than a salad of green leaves.

Add a cracking vinaigrette to mop up after a cracking bistecca or an amazing pasta and it’s almost the palette cleanser. The sign the first parts of the meal have come to an end and it’s time to open a new red, pause and talk about the cheese options on hand.

Sometimes though, things call for a salad as big as the main.

Something bold and comforting in itself.

Not just for mopping.

This salad is a great example.

It’s moorish. The second half of a pasta lunch.

It’s a meal in and of itself.

Don’t be confused. It isn’t classy.

More meaty, sans the meat.

Though it’s a lovely salad when the time calls for it.

(Sidenote! This is my 600th recipe on Robby Dog Cooks. Time flies when you’re having fun!)

Ingredients

For the vinaigrette

1 c loosely packed fresh Italian parsley leaves
1 c loosely packed fresh basil leaves
1/4 tsp dried oregano
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/3 c red wine vinegar
3/4 c extra virgin olive oil
Heaping 3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp honey

For the salad

1 large head romaine lettuce, torn into large, bite-sized pieces
1 large capsicum, chopped
1 c seeded and chopped cucumbers
1 to 2 carrots, peeled into ribbons
Handful grape tomatoes, halved
Handful pitted olives
Feta, crumbled to taste

Method

To make the vinaigrette, combine all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz.
Place all the salad ingredients in a bowl except the feta. Just before serving, add about half the vinaigrette and toss, adding more if need be. Toss in the cheese and season.

Sylvia Fountaine’s Lemongrass Chicken

May 11, 2023.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

I don’t cook or eat a lot of stir fries.

In fact, this is the first I have ever typed up.

Which means it must be good, and it is.

It’s also simple. Mid-week dinner simple. Vietnamese hump-day stuff.

Perhaps closer to a larb than a stir fry and maybe that it why it is soo good, though stir fry it is and worth typing up, very much.

Ingredients

1 – 2 tbsp peanut or vegetable oil
2 fat shallots, thinly sliced
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 c lemongrass, finely chopped
4 – 5 dried Thai chillies (or 1/2 tsp of chilli flakes)
500g chicken mince
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp Chinese Five Spice
1 tsp cracked pepper
1 bell red or yellow bell pepper, sliced
2 baby bok choy sliced
3 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp honey
1/4 c mint leaves or Thai basil
Lime wedges
Jasmine rice to serve

Method

Cook your rice.
In an extra large skillet, heat oil over a medium-high heat and one hot, add shallots and stir fry until tender, about 2 – 3 minutes. Add garlic, lemongrass and dried chillies, stir frying until fragrant. Scoop all into a bowl and set aside.
In the same pan, add a splash of oil, increase heat to high and add the ground chicken, season with salt and pepper, breaking it apart and browning once all the liquid has evaporated.
Add the five spice, peppers and bok choi, lower heat and stir fry until peppers are just tender, about 3 minutes.
Add the fish sauce, lime juice and honey alone with the cook shallot mixture, removing the Thai chillies. Taste, adjust and add some fresh herbs to serve.

Florence Fabricant’s Greek Fisherman’s Stew

October 23, 2022.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 4 – 6

Florence Fabricant is a NY Times food writer.

I subscribe to the NY Times Food app (a very worthy $50/annum) and the pro trick is to navigate primarily to those recipes that have hundreds, often thousands and thousands of 5-star ratings.

This is one of them.

Rustic. Easy to prepare. Absolutely moorish, especially as the sriracha mayonnaise breaks up in the juices.

This is definitely the way to kick off the week. Rude not to have a glass of white alongside.

Nat reckons her cheats Bouillabaisse is better. I’m on the fence.

You could cook this for me every week and I’d never be bored of it.

Yum.

Ingredients

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 small head fennel, diced
1/4 tsp red chilli flakes, or to taste
2 large beefsteak tomatoes, cored and chopped with their juices
1 tsp sea salt, or to taste
1 cup dry white wine (or whatever it is you have opened to have whilst you cook!)
500gm potatoes, peeled and diced*
Ground black pepper
1 tbsp lemon juice
1kg bass fillets or similar, cut into 12 pieces
6 basil leaves torn
1 c mayonnaise seasoned with 1 1/2 tsp sriracha or other hot sauce

Method

Warm the oil in a heavy saucepan or casserole over a medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic until soft but not brown. Add fennel and cook a few minutes, until softened. Stir in chilli flakes. Add tomatoes and salt, cover and cook on medium for about 10 minutes.
Stir in the wine and 2 1/2 c water, bring to a simmer, add the potatoes and cook for another 6 minutes or so, or until potatoes are tender. Season and add the lemon juice.
Season the fish pieces with salt and pepper, place them in the stew and simmer on low, covered, until the fish is just cooked through; about 5 minutes. Warm 6 generous soup plates.
When the fish is done, remove to your it to the warm soup plates. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the basil to wilt it. Divide soup among the 6 plates and serve with a good dollop of the spiced mayonnaise.

* The recipe asks for Yukon Gold potatoes of which I don’t know if I have seen in Australia. For me, there are white and red potatoes and then there are kipflers.

It seems the recipe is asking for the white or red varieties, though I did kipflers. Always so good.

I can see either working and for different reasons.

Enough potato talk.

Ricky’s Herb Vinaigrette

March 6, 2022.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 4

A few weeks ago, we spent a weekend in Noosa – sans kids – and it was just marvellous.

Day after day of late lunches, lying on the beach, reading, walking it off. Some very memorable dinners too.

When in Noosa, the beach is a must… before lunch. (And a diet after all these lunches!)

A good mate recommended Rickys which really was a highlight.

It is a beautiful restaurant on the river. A modern, relaxed interior of wood and glass, opening onto the water.

Friendly, incredibly professional service. A wonderful wine list. The ferry pulling alongside every half hour or so.

It was just a great lunch, though perhaps ironically, it was the greens and herby salad that stood out for me.

And thankyou to the kind chef who jotted down the recipe for me, which I have adapted below:

Because we have recently been chasing the best vinaigrettes to serve with leaves: convinced that after a beautiful piece of steak, pork, chicken or fish, a wonderfully simple salad of greens just mops it up.

This is one of the best, for three reasons: it is so simple, it hero’s herbs, a key signature of Neil Perry’s brilliant vinaigrette and finally, it isn’t sweet.

Not that there is anything wrong with a sweet vinaigrette, though the muted flavour of the canola oil and white balsamic (substitute white wine vinegar) really does blunt the whole thing down to almost the best, simplest paring you could ask.

Safely back in Sydney, we did a wonderfully simple seafood lunch, accompanied by this excellent Iceberg’s pea and farro salad as well as the Ricky’s salad:

How good is a seared tuna. And only a seared tuna.

It had 1-hat genius written all over it.

Try this vinaigrette. It is the best of all the vinaigrette worlds we have been trying.

Ingredients

100ml canola oil
50ml white balsamic (or white wine vinegar)
A handful of basil leaves
A handful of tarragon leaves
A handful of Italian parsley leaves
Salt
Green leaves

Method

Combine all the ingredients except the green leaves in a blender until well emulsified.
Stir well through the greens and serve immediately.

Damien Pignolet’s Grilled Tuna with Pistou & Tomato Aioli, with Fennel and Kipfler Potato Salad

February 24, 2022.Reading time 5 minutes.

Serves: 6

This very much 80s, very much Southern French dish is still absolutely in vogue.

Mayonnaise (aioli) and fish has never, ever dated.

Especially in the warmer months.

The whole thing is just sublime. The olives and fennel with the potato.

The wonderful tomato aioli with the tuna and pistou.

You would knock people’s socks off with this dish and it isn’t that hard to prepare.

Indeed, other than the salad and cooking the fish, the rest could be done in advance.

This is lux, 80s, 1-hat eating.

Just add sunshine and a good, cold white.

I just love it when a dish like this works just so, so well.

Ingredients

6 x 200gm portions tuna fillet
Olive oil
Salt and freshly ground white pepper

Pistou

2 small cloves garlic, pelled
20 large basil leaves
3 – 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Tomato aioli*

3 ripe tomatoes, quartered
A drizzle of olive oil
2 cloves garlic, unpeeled
2 egg yolks
100ml extra virgin olive oil
60 – 80ml grapeseed oil
A little lemon juice

Fennel and kipfler potato salad

8 – 10 medium kipfler potatoes
60ml extra virgin olive oil
1 medium-sized fennel bulb
A touch of aged balsamic vinegar
24 Ligurian olives (we used half this amount)

Method

Make the pistou: finely chop the garlic, then work to a paste with a pinch of salt, using the flat of a knife. Transfer to a mortar and then add the basil and grind to a paste, adding a few drops of oil. When smooth, work in the remaining oil and season to taste.
For the tomato aioli, preheat the oven to 250c. Toss the tomatoes with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast in a shallow dish until the tomatoes are scorched and very soft, then pass through a fine sieve and set the juice aside.
Cover the garlic with cold water and bring to the boil. Drain and repeat, cooking this time until the cloves are tender when pierced with a small knife, then drain the garlic, remove the skin and crush with a small spoon in a small mixing bowl. Add the egg yolks and a pinch of salt and gradually add the oils in a thin stream, just a few drops to begin with, whisking constantly. The aioli should be very thick; if not, work in a little more oil.**
Work in enough of the reserved tomato puree to flavour the aioli but retain the consistency of thick cream. Adjust the seasoning, adding lemon juice to taste.
Next, make the salad. Peel the potatoes, cut intp 1cm thick slices then steam until tender, about 15 minutes. *** While the potatoes are still hot, dress them with the oil and vinegar, add the olives and season to taste.
Trim the the base and top of the fennel. Shave the fennel bulb into 2mm-thick slices, preferably with a mandoline, then combine with the warm potatoes and olives. Mix well and do not worry if the potatoes break up – this is meant to be rustic food.
Using a thin paring knife, cut a pocket in the side of each piece of tuna and work in the pistou.
Heat a cast-iron grill or a large, heavy based frying pan until very hot but not smoking then lightly brush with olive oil. Brush one side of each tuna portion with oil and season this side only. Sear for about 2 minutes or until the edges of the fish just begin to change colour. Brush the raw side with oil, season, then flip over and cook for another minute or so. Transfer the tuna to warm plates, coat with the tomato aioli and garnish with the salad.

* A dish like this calls for a homemade mayonnaise/aioli, though I also very much get the merits of cheating. Simply follow the tomato step, do this cheat aioli and voila.

** Hats off if you whisk mayonnaise and aioli by hand, though seriously, consider a food processor as has been the norm since the 70s.

*** Microwave container. Splash of water. 8 minutes. Job done.

Pasta Genovese

November 22, 2021.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4 – 6

This classic pasta really is brilliant.

Nat found it in my mother’s collection of recipes and alongside a focaccia Nat cooked, nobody ate a better lunch in our part of town that day.

I love the cooking of the potatoes with the pasta. Which together with the wonderfully simple pesto and the prosciutto, it just so wonderfully rustic.

Just add plenty of Parmesan, open a bottle of white and there you have it… classic.

Ingredients

Dried linguini or tagliatelle
6 small baby potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly
100gm baby green beans, trimmed
Grated Parmesan
Thinly sliced prosciutto
2 c tightly packed basil leaves
50gm pine nuts
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
150ml olive oil
Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Method

Process the basil, pine nuts and garlic to a paste, stir in the olive oil and 100gm Parmesan: season.
Cook the pasta in salted water and 5 minutes before the cooking time is done, add the potatoes.
Just before draining, add the beans and cook briefly. Drain, retaining 100ml of the pasta water.
Add a generous amount of the pesto to the pasta water together with some additional Parmesan, toss together all the ingredients and serve with prosciutto slices draped over.

Kay Chun’s Coconut-Miso Salmon Curry

November 15, 2021.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

This curry I found on NYT’s Cooking had 7k+ 5-star reviews so… it had to be done.

Add one more 5-star.

What a mild, moorish dinner.

The caremalised miso with the coconut milk, the lime and then the fresh herbs. Wow.

I used a premium coconut milk and the difference was obvious. Don’t cut this corner.

And it’s so simple. Monday-night home date-night sort of stuff.

You could add fresh chilli at the end, though whatever you do, get that lime juice in and a solid handful of those herbs.

Note: I used two cups of water and not three and I would do it again.

Ingredients

2 tbsp canola oil
1 medium red onion, halved and sliced 5cm thick
1 10cm piece fresh ginger, minced
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
1/2 c white miso
1/2 c coconut milk
750g salmon, cut into large pieces
5c baby spinach
1 tbsp fresh lime juice, plus lime wedges for serving
Steamed jasmine rice for serving
1/4 c chopped fresh basil
1/4 c chopped fresh coriander

Method

In a large pot, heat the oil over a medium heat. Add the onion, ginger and garlic and season. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add the miso and cook, stirring frequently, until the miso is lightly caramelised: about 2 minutes.
Add the coconut and 3 cups of boiling water and bring to a boil. Cook for 5 minutes until the liquid is reduced slightly. Lower the heat and add the salmon and simmer gently until just cooked through. Turn off the hear and stir in the spinach and lime juice until the spinach is wilted.
Serve with rice, topped with the fresh herbs and lime wedges for squeezing.

Beef Mince with Chilli, Basil and Snake Beans

January 11, 2021.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4

There is something so appealing – and so comfortable – about Thai mince on rice, beef or pork.

Fish sauce, plenty of chilli, a fried egg on top.

Perfect mid-week dinner territory.

I’ve typed up very similar, though this one is really quite simple and the addition of the snake beans is always a neat touch.

Ingredients

6 cloves garlic, chopped
2 bullseye chillies, sliced and deseeded
4 tbsp vegetable oil plus extra for frying the eggs
750gm beef mince
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp castor sugar
2 cups Thai basil leaves
1 bunch snake beans, cut into 5cm batons
4 eggs
Steam Jasmine rice, to serve

Method

Heat a wok over a medium heat until hot and ad the oil. Add the garlic and chilli and stir-fry for about two minutes until fragrant. Add the beef and stir fry until the beef is browned and cooked through.
Add the fish sauce, soy sauce and castor sugar and stir fry until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add the snake beans and cook for a minute or two.
Add the basil, stir through and remove from the heat.
Fry four eggs in a separate pan.
Serve the mince on steamed rice, topping with a fried egg.