mike[space] dot net

Alright, so tonight it was the turn of another recipe from Jane, baked salmon. Obviously salmon on it own does not make a meal, so I decided to do it with some mash potato and a fried courgette.

1 Salmon fillet or steak
1 onion
3 thin slices lemon (the rest can go in your G and T)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 bottle white wine

Heat oven to 190 degrees.

Cut a piece of foil three times the length of the piece of fish. Brush with the olive oil (I just pour it on the foil and spread it with my fingers) Slice the lemon thinly and place 3 pieces in the middle of the foil. [added after some email clarification] Slice the onion finely (you'll probably only need half) and lay it on top of the lemon, then put the salmon on top. Sit the salmon on top, then season with salt and pepper (or whatever you have - dried herbs are nice, piece of dill etc). Pull the foil up to make a little dish and pour over 1 small wineglass of wine. Pull the foil right up and close to make a parcel. Bake in oven for about 12 minutes. Drink rest of bottle of wine.

This is really good with hollandaise sauce. Buy a packet (don't be sniffy, Gary Rhodes thinks it's a good idea too). Just buy a good make and add a knob of butter and a generous squeeze of lemon juice.

Obviously the first thing to do was get the potatoes on the go. Once they had started to boil, I stuck the oven on to get the pre-heating going, then I got to work on the lemon and the onion. Sadly I seem to have lost my onion cutting technique so I didn't really wind up with very good slices. Once everything was prepared, i waited until the potatoes had been on for 10 minutes, and then started putting the salmon together. Having put the lemon and onion down, I suddenly realised I didn't know what way up to put the salmon. I tried to call Jane, but they were out, so I just stuck it on skin down and hoped for the best. Once it was in the oven, I started putting the sauce together, stirring until the powder had dissolved fully. After that I stuck the courgettes on, and then I was on to making the mash!

It turned out really well, and I pretty much managed to time everything to be ready at the same time, which I was pretty chuffed with! The fish was really juicy, and flaked apart nicely, and I think my mash was probably the best I've put together. Many thanks to Jane once again for the recipe. Tomorrow I shall be trying out Charlie's chilli recipe ...