Let me start by saying, this is not my recipe — I stumbled across it while browsing Alison Roman’s recipes on the NYT Cooking YouTube channel and thought it sounded delicious, which it was. The actual recipe is behind a pay wall, and since I’m too frugal for that sh*t I just used the video as my guide.

Alison pairs her cod with cilantro, mint, line, and soft corn tortillas. I chose to go a different route, and put the cod and tomatoes over a bowl of brown rice with some basil leaves.

It was delicious and it came together really quickly, minus the rice’s 45 minute cook time (although it’s always done early). The tomato sauce only took about 10 minutes to make, and the cod roughly 5 to cook.

The fried shallots and garlic in chili oil make this dish. Without them, all of your ingredients are soft and relatively straightforward in flavor. The crunch and the heat that they add to this dish elevates it, and gives it a really nice depth of flavor and texture. While the dish would still be yummy without, I definitely don’t recommend skipping it.

This dish wasn’t just easy to make, but it plated really beautifully. The juxtapositions between the reds and the greens, and the crispy and soft ingredients made this dish visually appealing as well as appetizing.

Plating a dish is perhaps my favorite part of cooking. I treasure that moment all of the colors, textures, and flavors come together. It’s a three dimensional composition of color and shape and negative space.

Not only that, but I love presenting a beautiful dish to someone. It feels like a tiny little present.