Can someone please give me a good salmon filet recipe?
I had two filets to cook yesterday. I rubbed each with some kosher salt and black pepper, then put in a baking dish and baked at 350 for 20 minutes.
Neither were cooked through, so I put them in the cast iron skillet I used for the asparagus side dish and finished cooking them kinda like scrambled eggs (kept them moving with my wooden spoon).
The asparagus was great, but the salmon really wasn’t. Anyone have a good (and hopefully easy) recipe for salmon?
Also, my oven sucks! Things usually take about 15 minutes longer to cook than what a recipes says.
My favorite remains the simplest: salt lightly and let sit for five minutes or so. Heat butter in a skillet until it froths. Add the fillets to the pan and saute for about five minutes on side A. Turn and saute on side B until the fish is easily flaked, but still rather translucent. Top with lemon juice, if you like. Once in awhile I put some dill on it, but it’s so good with nothing but a bit of salt, that that’s the way I prefer it. Baked fish almost always comes out overcooked for my tastes. Also, I’d recommend either red (sockeye) or king salmon. Silver is okay, but a distant third. Avoid Atlantic salmon or pink salmon.
You could also marinade it for fifteen or twenty minutes in soy sauce + brown sugar + {whatever other Asian-ish things you like}. But yeah, I always do salmon in some butter in a pan, because I like the skin to be super-crispy but the interior of the fish to be quite translucent, so searing it in a hot skiller works best for me. (I use a nonstick pan for this one.)
I’m not sure why you kept moving it around when you put it in the skillet. The best way to cook meat of any kind is to put it down on a hot surface and then don’t touch it so it can develop a sear on the surface. That’s why you stir scrambled eggs, for that matter - so they don’t overcook in any one place.
I like to combine mayonnaise, dijon mustard, lemon juice, a minced shallot, tarragon, and black pepper. Spread on flesh side of fillet and broil until salmon is cooked through and top is browned and bubbly. Sounds odd, but it keeps the fish moist and gives it a nice color.
First tip. Buy an oven thermometer. You can get one for a few bucks. It is very common for domestic oven thermostats to be wildly inaccurate. I have used one for decades and often lend mine to people with similar complaints to yours. It always turns out the oven is lying about exactly how hot for you it is.
I personally am a huge fan of the $20 1400 watt turbo ovens. I slow cook salmon on the wash setting. Awesome.
I used to work on a commercial salmon packing boat, I’ve cooked a lot of salmon.
Here are 3 simple recipes:
Miracle Whip Dill Salmon
1). Place fillet skin side down on a cookie sheet covered in tin foil
2). Using a knife, slice a “cross-hatch” pattern into the salmon (abot 1"x1" squares 1/8" deep)
3). Coat the salmon in Miracle Whip, sprinkle fresh dill and cracked pepper on top
4). Bake in pre-heated oven for 20-25 min at 350 f. (or until middle is “flakey”)
5). Use a spatula to serve, the salmon skin should stick to tin foil
BBQ Miracle Whip Salmon
1). Place fillet skin side down on a cookie sheet covered in tin foil (use enough foil to completely wrap fish)
2). Using a knife, slice a “cross-hatch” pattern into the salmon (abot 1"x1" squares 1/8" deep)
3). Coat the salmon in Miracle Whip mixed with some BBQ sauce (1/4 cup or so) and some sliced onion
4). Fold tin foil up to create a sealed “pouch”
5). Bake in pre-heated oven for 20-25 min at 350 f. (salmon will basically poace inside tin foil)
6). Open tin foil use a spatula to serve, the salmon skin should stick to tin foil
Teryaki Salmon
1). Place fillet skin side down on a cookie sheet covered in tin foil
2). Using a knife, slice a “cross-hatch” pattern into the salmon (abot 1"x1" squares 1/8" deep)
3). Coat the salmon in thick teryaki (I use Golden Dragon brand), sprinkle some minced garlic and add some cracked pepper on top
4). Bake in pre-heated oven for 20-25 min at 350 f. (or until middle is “flakey”)
5). Use a spatula to serve, the salmon skin should stick to tin foil
I like to do salmon under the broiler. That pretty much eliminates the “how hot is my oven” dilemma since it’s all the way hot. Do preheat first. You want salmon to be a little rare in the middle, too. It only takes a few minutes to get it sort of grilled looking on the outside and perfect in the middle.
Salmon is good blackened. Coat with melted butter, liberally coat with blackening seasoning, or any mix of dried herbs and spices (I often use Old Bay). Drop on a very hot ungreased cast iron pan. If you do this indoors, and don’t have a good exhaust fan, expect your smoke alarms to go off. Cook for 2-3 minutes on one side, then flip and cook another 2-3 minutes. You may need more time for thicker fillets if you like it cooked to well done (I prefer it just warm in the center). Remove the fish and squeeze the juice of a whole lemon into the pan to deglaze, then pour the burnt butter sauce over the fillet(s).
There is salmon and then there is salmom. Do you have farmed or wild? Frozen or fresh? What size and thickness are your fillets?
Fresh salmon, simply prepared, is a revelation and, in my mind, the absolute best (and healthiest) way is to grill it over a hot grill. If the fillet still has the skin then salt, pepper and maybe some lemon and set on the grill. For a 1" thick fillet (at the center) grill for about 10 minutes so that the salmon is still just slightly pink in the middle. Given the variation in thickness there will be a slight overcooking of the fish at the edges.
With fresh salmon just arriving from Alaska this is a great time.
BTW, for a variety of reasons, I refuse to purchase farmed salmon (or farmed fish period)!
That because when you set it to 350, it probably never gets above 250. Either buy an oven thermometer so you know how hot it really is, or set it to 450 and hope for the best.
The technique for cooking pan-seared salmon in this recipe is the best I’ve found. You don’t flip the fish–you cover it. It makes the skin crispy and the salmon a nice medium-rare. I usually skip the arugula and instead serve this with a side of roasted asparagus and some hollandaise.
Technically, much of what is called “wild” salmon or trout is farmed. Smolt is released into streams, which return to spawn, and lakes are stocked with trout. That said, salmon or any other fish that is raised and harvested in large pools is crap fish, IMO.
Others have already said it, but salmon shouldn’t be cooked through. It’s fine to eat rare, medium rare, or medium, instead of well done. The better the salmon, the rarer I generally like it. It will also keep cooking for a few minutes after you take it out of the oven. I’m guessing your salmon was actually cooked properly before you put it in the pan.
We love a salmon recipe we found in the America’s Test Kitchen cookbook. First, preheat the oven to 500 degrees. During pre-heating, whip up a glaze with 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons each of apple cider vinegar, coarse ground mustard, and minced garlic, and one tablespoon of vegetable oil. Bring the glaze mix to a boil and cook it down until it thickens slightly (it’ll take just a few minutes.) Pour the glaze over your salmon fillet and cook it on a greased baking sheet on the top rack until it’s done, i.e., it flakes with a fork. (Probably about 10-12 minutes). Dang good.