poached Archives - freespiritfood

We thought a light dinner on a Christmas Eve would be nice ahead of a day of planned feasting today.

I have never actually poached a whole side of Salmon before but I certainly will be in future.

I bought this 1.5kg side from Peninsula Seafood’s Processing Plant outlet in Dromana on our way down to the Mornington Peninsula last Monday. They cryovacced the salmon for me which meant I could keep it in the fridge rather than have to freeze it and defrost it.

The recipe I used is based on Mary Berry’s Poached Salmon with shrimps and asparagus which looks delicious, but I really wanted to keep dinner simple so we had it with asparagus a d feta salad in the side.

Ingredients:

Side of salmon – 1.5kg
Butter
Foil
1/4 cup white wine
Juice of 1 lemon
Dill – 2-3 stalks
Salt and pepper
Asparagus – 2 bunches
Feta to crumble over asparagus
Baby spinach leaves
Salt and pepper
Foil

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius

2. Lay 2 long foil sheets across a large roasting pan, fold over does in middle to join together into one sheet, grease foil with butter.

3. Lay dill in middle of sheet. Season salmon with salt and pepper on the cut side and place face down (skin side up) on the dill. Put a few dabs of butter across top of salmon for good measure.

4. Pour wine and lemon juice around the salmon and fold over long edges of foil to create a packet, then fold over short edges, rolling and scrunching to seal.

5. Bake salmon for 25 minutes. While salmon is baking, blanch asparagus until bright green and tender.

6 remove salmon from from oven, undo package and remove skin which will easily peel off. Using a teaspoon or palette knife, gently scrape off the grey coloured meat/fatty layer under the skin to reveal the pink layer of flesh.

7. Carefully flip salmon and juices onto a serving platter, surround with Baby spinach, asparagus, sprinkle with feta. Dress salad with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.