Christmas Baked Salmon
Have you ever seen a Baked Salmon that looks so festive? What's more, it's DEAD EASY! Featuring a honey butter-glazed side of salmon baked in foil, slathered with creamy dill sauce and finally topped with a glittering Holiday "Tapenade", this Salmon Tarator inspired dish pays extremely high dividends for very little work.
Christmas Salmon:
- 1.2 - 1.5 kg / 2.4 - 3lb salmon bones and with the skin on.
- 2 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 150g / 5oz butter , unsalted
- 1/2 cup honey
- 3 garlic cloves , finely minced
Honey Butter Glaze:
Creamy Dill Sauce:
- 1 1/2 cups sour cream , full fat (low fat is too watery)
- 1/2 cup fresh dill , finely chopped (lightly packed cup)
- 1/2 eschallot (French onion) , finely grated
- 1 1/2 tbsp lemon zest
- 1/2 tsp salt , cooking/kosher
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1 cup orange juice
- 1 cup slivered almonds , toasted
- 1/3 cup parsley , roughly chopped
- 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 pomegranate , only the seeds
- 1/4 cup parsley , roughly chopped
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 lemons, extra , cut in 6 pieces each (for serving, don't skip this)
- 1. Mix ingredients in a bowl until smooth. Keep refrigerated until required.
- 1. Plump cranberries: Heat orange juice in a saucepan over high heat until hot. Turn stove off, add cranberries, cover. Stand 15 minutes, then drain in a colander (discard liquid). Cool.
- 2. Mix cranberries, toasted almonds, parsley, salt and olive oil in bowl. Use at room temp.
- 1. Preheat oven to 180°c (all oven types).
- 2. Prepare salmon: Place a large sheet of foil on a tray (double layer for safety is recommended), then top with baking/parchment paper. Place salmon on paper, then fold up the foil sides a bit to cup them so glaze won't run onto tray.
- 3. Glaze: Place ingredients in a saucepan over medium high heat. Once it started foaming, turn down to medium, let it foam for 2 minutes then remove and pour straight over the salmon.
- 4. Season: Sprinkle salmon with salt and pepper, putting most of the salt on the thicker part of the salmon.
- 5. Wrap: Cover salmon with a smaller piece of paper, then foil. Fold and seal up sides to enclose salmon in a parcel - it doesn't need to be 100% tightly sealed.
- 6. Bake 15 minutes. Remove salmon from oven.
- 7. Uncover / fold excess paper - Remove paper and foil and paper cover. Fold/scrunch paper and foil sides down to expose salmon surface. Tucking paper down also ensures it won't catch fire when broiling.
- 8. Grill to brown: Switch oven to grill on high. Place salmon on middle shelf in the oven and broil 7 to 10 minutes until you get caramelisation mostly on the edges, a bit on top. Don't put it too close to the heat element otherwise paper might catch on fire! Check to ensure salmon is cooked - either pry open in middle to check or use a probe to check internal temperatures (Note 4).
- 9. Transfer to plate: Use foil overhang to transfer salmon onto serving platter straight away (otherwise it keeps cooking). Slide the foil then paper out from under the salmon (see video at 1 min 24s or step photos in post), allowing juices to pool on platter (it's gold stuff!).
- 10. Cool: Loosely cover with foil, then leave to cool for at least 15 minutes, up to 1 hour or longer (for room temp serving - Note 6 for serving notes).
- 1. Dollop then thickly spread with Creamy Dill Sauce (~0.8cm / 1/3" thick layer).
- 2. Pile over Holiday Tapenade, scatter generously with pomegranate seeds, and then remaining parsley. Squeeze over lemon juice.
- 3. Serving: Serve with extra lemon wedges so people can add more to taste. Cut into pieces - I use a cake cutter for serving. Encourage people to slop up some of the honey-butter sauce that will be mixed with semi melted Creamy Dill Sauce - it's so good! This dish is best served slightly warm, not piping hot, also excellent at room temp.