Nothing excites me more than a beautiful, fresh piece of salmon in the kitchen. There's something about the exquisite and smooth salmon fillet that gets my heart pounding a little faster each time i lay my eyes on it. I admittedly don't cook it very often because of how expensive it is but for that very same reason, i'm always on the lookout for a good salmon recipe.
The brilliancy of this dish lies in its simplicity- the salmon is drizzled with olive oil and seasoned only with salt and pepper. Seared on the griddle for a couple of minutes on both sides then baked in the oven, a step i added as i prefer my salmon completely cooked through, the fillet is slightly crispy on the outside yet moist and slightly firm on the inside with the delicate flavour of the salmon perfectly paired with the slightly tang salad dressing shining through. Because the fillet is seasoned so minimally, it leaves your palate feeling really clean, which was a huge plus for me.
From the first forkful, it was a clear winner for me. Of course the quick preparation time, at barely ten minutes, didn't hurt :)
If you're planning to make this, just a little thing you should note. In his amazing book titled How To Cook The Perfect.. that i can't get enough of, Marcus Wareing advises against shaking the pan and prodding the salmons while griddling them; it not only slows down the cooking but also causes the fillets to release their juices and become watery.
Griddled Salmon with Mixed Salad [adapted from Marcus Wareing's How To Cook The Perfect..]
Ingredients
2 salmon fillets, about 200g each
Olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 large handfuls of mixed salad leaves
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 heaped tbsp Djion mustard
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- Preheat oven to 200C. Remove any bones that might be present in the fillets and pat fillets dry. Drizzle fillets with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Heat a griddle over high heat till really hot. Lowering to medium heat, place fillets on griddle, cooking for 3 minutes on each side.
- Removing griddle from heat, place it in the oven for 5 minutes, covering the fillets loosely with alumimium foil.
- Meanwhile, combine mustard, a pinch of salt and pepper and a tbsp of vinegar in a medium bowl, whisking together well. Slowly pouring olive oil in, whisk mixture vigorously, combining well. Add the other tbsp of vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.
- Reserving about 1 tbsp of dressing, toss salad with mixture and divide among 2 plates.
- To serve, place a piece of fillet on top of salad and drizzle with the reserved salad dressing. Serves 2
4 comments:
OMG you're making me soo hungry! I'm a really big fan of salmons, and I eat anything that is salmon, ranging from the raw salmon slices in the Japanse cuisine (they call it shashimi) to the griddled salmon you mentioned in your post! For some reason I can't explain myself I seem to love salmon more than any kind of fish you can find. Although sharkfins and whale meat may taste better, I would rather not be part of the deadly cause that lead to their extinction :) So salmon will always be my favourite!
yum! i love salmon. yours look great!
hey Teddy
Haha i have to admit that growing up, you couldn't bribe me enough to eat fish unless of course it came in the form of fish and chips or Mac's Fish O' Fillet- it was the only thing i ate from Mac's for the longest time ironically. It must have all that cod liver oil my mum used to force down our throats by the tablespoonfuls and steamed fish that graced our dinner table way too often.
But yeah i love salmon too but just not too much- i tend to feel really sick from how rich it is.
hey Evan
Thanks! :)
Haha cod liver oil! Reminds me of my childhood days when mom and dad forced these goooey liquid down into my throat :) heh. And yep surprisingly the Chinese cuisine serves steamed fish and only steamed fish, so I've been eating the same kind of steamed fish for 18 years of my life ><
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