Baked Salmon in Parchment

April 23rd, 2006  | Category: Meat, Chicken & Seafood

Last week, an ex-colleague/partner in crime/drop-dead-gorgeous close friend, who bears a striking resemblance to Carrie @ Sex and the City, was over for dinner. As always, this get-together was full of laughter, reminiscence of the old days at work and -of course- food.

We started planning the menu a couple of weeks in advance. She specifically had ‘one of those main dishes where only 10% of the plate is full with overly impressive and colourful food’ in mind. After she turned down a couple of suggestions - and knowing that 10% of the plate would be 100% self deception for people like us - she settled for a full plate of baked salmon and vegetables.

Baked Salmon in Parchment

Salmon plate

Ingredients

Method

  1. Preheat your oven to 400F (205C).
  2. Cut a parchment paper triple the size of your salmon fillet.
  3. Skin and slice the onions (half an inch thick) and lay them on the center of the parchment paper. Place the salmon fillet (both sides previously sprinkled with sea salt and pepper) on top of the onions.
  4. In a small bowl, mix together juice and zest of 1 orange, juice of 2 lemons and tablespoon of honey, and pour over the salmon. Put the oregano bundle and drizzle olive oil on top.
  5. Fold the parchment paper over the ingredients and neatly tuck the sides. Put on a rimmed baking sheet and cook in the oven for 35-40 minutes. After that, cut from the sides of the parchment paper and continue cooking uncovered for another 15 minutes. This will allow the fish to be tender and juicy while crispy on the outside.
  6. This main dish goes well with any vegetable you have in your refrigerator. Our choice was brocoli, potatoes and carrots. Blanch the potatoes and carrots for 10 minutes (or more depending on their size), then add the brocoli and continue for 5 more minutes. Transfer them to a large bowl filled with cold water and ice (to preserve their color) and drain.

Salmon cake

The last time Azra was over, she brought a cake called Bogazici (Bosphorus) from one of our favorite bakeries. It is a three layered chocolate cake, each layer stuffed with bananas and pistachios and covered with bitter chocolate ganache. She ordered the cake the day of and it melted in our mouths. So the same cake was a given this time around as well. But she heard of another cake that was newly added to the bakery’s product line and got raving reviews from a group of friends. We decided to give it a try. It was a chantilly cream and choux based cake with strawberries, all covered with white chocolate cream. It was nice but definitely doesn’t stand a chance of replacing our old favorite.

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Comments

  1. bakingfairy on April 24th, 2006

    what about me????? how can you have other women over and have dinner? and dessert too?? me talk no more:(((

  2. A on April 24th, 2006

    I’m just as picky when it comes to my food as Carrie about her shoes…Although I’m not the biggest fan of fish meals, I wanted to give this salmon recipe a try, imagining only what Cenk can make out of it!!I’m not exaggerating when I say that it was THE best fish meal ever and I highly recommend everyone to try this at home. As for the dessert, I couldn’t possibly imagine better companies than Cenk & this delicious piece of cake to go with my favourite TV series “Sex & the City”…(with compliments to those who have every right to be jealous!!)

  3. Melek Yağcı on April 25th, 2006

    Please oblige us by giving the name of this blessed bakery?
    please…
    please…
    please…:)

  4. Cenk on April 25th, 2006

    Hi Melek - The name of the bakery is Pelit.

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