Thursday, February 21, 2008

Roasted Salmon with Zesty Relish, French Fingerling Potatoes, and Brussels Sprouts




I am now the proud subscriber of Cook's Illustrated, possibly the best cooking-basics magazine out there. The current issue discusses the roasted salmon dilemma: either you go for crispy outside or soft, silky insides. Their solution gives you both. Here's my take on it (well, the relish is my take-- the recipe is theirs).

You'll need:

1 salmon fillet per person-- skin on, pin bones removed with tweezers
salt
pepper
olive oil

for the relish:

1 lemon
2T capers
6 olives, Greek mix

Preheat oven to 500 degrees with the baking sheet inside that you'll use for the salmon. This is the key to the crispy skin part. In the meantime, wash and dry the fish, remove the bones, and slit the skin diagonally with a sharp pointy knife (about 5 slits, 1 inch apart from each other). Be sure not to cut into the fish itself. Rub the fish all over with oil, and season generously with salt and pepper. Place on heated baking sheet, turn oven down to 275 (this is the key to the silky interior), and put the salmon on the lowest possible oven rack. It'll cook for about 10 minutes. While it's cooking, make the relish.

Chop capers and olives finely. Grate lemon zest, preferably with a microplane. Mix.

Serve salmon topped with relish. I ate my salmon with roasted Fingerlings and balsamic brussels sprouts (as you can see above in the rather crappy picture). Enjoy!

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