Couscous-crusted salmon with tomato and olive vinaigrette

Put the dry couscous in a large bowl with the olive oil and work the oil through it with a fork or by hand before the water goes in. This is optional and is the classic way.

Boil 200 ml of water, the same weight as the couscous, pour it over, mix, cover with a plate and leave five minutes.

Strip the parsley off its stalks and chop it with a cross chop.

Roughly chop the pitted olives on the board, coarse rather than fine, stopping well short of a puree.

Take a fork to the rested couscous and gently detach the grains until it is fluffy and has almost doubled in volume.

Lay a bed of couscous out, press a piece of salmon into it and encrust the whole piece, pressing the sides so the fragile crust holds. Add more couscous if needed.

Transfer the coated salmon into a baking dish.

variation: for gluten intolerance, replace the couscous with another grain such as quinoa flakes and roll the salmon in beaten egg first to make it stick.

Heat the oven to 200C, about 400F, and bake about 20 minutes, until the couscous crust is golden. Drop to 190 or 180C if it is colouring too fast.

For the vinaigrette, put salt and pepper in a bowl with the white wine vinegar. The base ratio is one measure of vinegar to three of oil, but here the vinaigrette is the only sauce and the couscous is dry, so it wants plenty of vinegar and juice.

Add the grain mustard and start whisking.

Add the oil bit by bit, as for a mayonnaise, until it emulsifies into a dressing.

Stir the chopped tomato, parsley and olives through the dressing and leave it in the bowl while the salmon cooks. The tomatoes render their juices and the mixture infuses; it should not be too liquid.

The salmon is out at a golden crust, which for him took 25 minutes rather than the 20 stated, in a smaller dish with higher edges that slightly overcooked it.

Plate a piece of salmon and spoon two or three tablespoons of the tomato and olive mixture over it, with a few lettuce leaves on the side.