French in a Flash: Salmon en Croûte with Rosemary and Asparagus Recipe

I appreciate anything that comes complete in a box, with every part you will ever or could ever need already included—IKEA furniture, Liberty needlepoint sets, and Itsu's bento lunches in London. I have no fears or worries; everything I need to assemble, stitch, or eat is right in front of me. It's a welcome vacation from thought and planning.

The French version of the "complete meal in a box" is theen croûte("in crust"). Consider puff pastry your packing material. Then pack everything you need for your meal—your protein, your vegetable, your sauce—inside, with the package doubling as your carb. Foolproof. Genius, even.

In this version, I pair the traditional salmon en croûte with rosemary, whose hearty woodsiness perfectly complements the salmon. Asparagus becomes the vegetable since it also works beautifully with rosemary. Crème fraîche binds everything together in a light, lemony sauce, and it is all contained in the perfectly golden and puffed pastry. You look extremely accomplished even though all you did was wrap some ingredients in puff pastry you picked up in the freezer section. Butshh,no one needs to know that a vacation from thought and planning can apply as much to the cook as to the eater.