Baked Salmon
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes concurrently
Serves: 8
- 1.4kg/3lbs side of salmon
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper
For Beurre Blanc
- 60g/2ozs eschallots, peeled and very finely chopped
- 50ml/1.7flozs dry white wine
- 30ml/1floz white wine vinegar
- 250g/8.8ozs salted butter, cold, cubed into 1cm/0.4inch pieces
- 1 teaspoon preserved lemon paste (I used my friend's brand If And When, otherwise puree preserved lemon)
To Finish
- 20g/0.7ozs salmon roe pearls
- 2 sprigs of fresh dill
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F fan forced and line a large baking tray with parchment. Trim the belly from the salmon and trim the ends so that it fits neatly on the baking dish and serving tray (I trimmed off around 250g/8.8ozs from the original weight). Place the salmon skin side down on the tray. Rub the top side with oil and season well with salt and pepper and bake for 20 minutes. When it is ready let it cool for 10 minutes while you make the sauce.
Step 2 - Conventional Place eschallots, wine and vinegar in a small heavy based saucepan over moderate heat until liquid has reduced considerably and there's only a couple of teaspoons left (it will take about 5 minutes). Note: at this point you can stop and then resume making the sauce at a later stage. Reduce heat to low medium and add 2 cubes of butter while whisking. Add remaining butter piece by piece while constantly whisking (you can add new pieces before other ones have completely melted). They key is to not cook this too high, you do not want the temperature to exceed 60°C/140°F. Once it reaches a creamy, hollandaise type consistency whisk in the preserved lemon paste. You can strain the eschallots and lemon out of the sauce but I didn't because I didn't want to lose the lemon flavour. It is now ready to serve.
Step 2 Thermomix- Place the eschallots, white wine and vinegar in the Thermomix for 6 minutes/100C/Speed #2. Note: at this point you can stop and then resume making the sauce at a later stage. Remove the MC and set to 2.5 minutes/60C/speed#2. While it is running, add cubes of butter in through the MC hole. Then replace the MC and set to 3 minutes/60C/Speed #3. Add the preserved lemon paste and set to 10 seconds/speed #3. You can strain the eschallots and lemon out of the sauce but I didn't because I didn't want to lose the lemon flavour. It is now ready to serve.
Step 3 - Place salmon on a serving tray and add salmon roe and dill on top. Pour the beurre blanc over the salmon at the table.