Salt baked branzino with piperade couscous
At Mara Restaurant and Bar at the recently opened Four Seasons Hotel Minneapolis executive chef Gavin Kaysen and chef de cuisine Thony Yang brine the fillets from a 600-800 gram Turkish branzino in a 5% salt solution for around 20 minutes. Then they rinse them in cold water and stack the fillets on top of each other with leek leaves, thyme, dill, tarragon and parsley between them. They then wrap that in a salty dough, similar to a pasta dough but a lot saltier and with some dill added.
Then they cook it in a 500-degree Fahrenheit oven for around eight minutes, let it rest for five minutes and then remove the top of the dough.
They serve it with Tunisian couscous with a piperade of stewed peppers and onions folded into it and garnished with toasted Marcona almonds, plus tzatziki, and a slaw of fennel seasoned with lemon olive oil, fennel pollen, lemon juice and salt.
Price: $68