Salmon

This is one of my favorite ways to prepare salmon. The marinade in this recipe is the perfect combination of spicy, sweet, and savory—in fact, I also love to use it with steaks or chicken. The Sriracha sauce (aka rooster sauce) is a must, and you can find it in the Asian section of most supermarkets.

This fish is topped with cilantro, but it's also great with pickled ginger.

A touch of horseradish gives this cured salmon recipe warmth and a bit of bite, while the beets give it earthy sweetness and vibrant color.

Find hot-smoked salmon, a Pacific Northwest delicacy, at specialty grocers. Erickson's favorite brand is available at lokifish.com.

This low-heat method is very gentle, lending the salmon a velvety texture.

Weighing down the salmon fillet with heavy cans as it cures will press excess liquid out of the flesh to ensure a firm texture.

Crème fraîche delivers tang along with creamy butterfat to this deconstructed salad; Greek yogurt can be substituted if you wish.

Cooking the salmon skin side down maximizes its crispy potential; brown butter carries nutty flavor into the flesh.

Both the salmon and the artichokes are poached in spice-and herb-infused liquids, adding layers of subtle aromatic flavor.

Flay often uses terracotta dishes called cazuelas for this recipe.

Super-healthy and really light, this beautiful salad is bright-looking and -tasting. These days it's not too difficult to find great-quality raw salmon. If you ask your local market for sushi-grade salmon, its freshness will be guaranteed. Once you have found the salmon, the hard work is done.

Sesame seeds have a powerful antidepressant effect and provide the basis for this healthy, restorative dinner.

This light but richly flavored broth is good with any fatty, skin-on fish fillet, such as Arctic char or sea bass.

The salmon absorbs more teriyaki flavor as it sits, making it even better (and breakfast that much quicker) if done in advance.

This elegant salmon dish is perfect for a winter dinner party—just slide it into a low oven for 40 minutes and it’s ready to serve.

This dish is the result of a kind of friendly competition I had with my friend Jeremy Marshall of Aquagrill restaurant in downtown Manhattan. We wanted to develop crusts for salmon: His is falafel, mine is hummus. The lemon oil will be best if you start it a day ahead, so there's time for the flavors to mature.

Hot-smoked salmon, unlike cured, is fully cooked.

Giving the broccoli a head start on the salmon in this one-pan dish lets it get nicely browned, coaxing out its natural sweetness.