Friday, September 25, 2009

Tray Baked Salmon and Vegetables


The real name of this Jamie Oliver recipe is "Summer Tray Baked Salmon" but I figure I can get away with posting it this week, seeing as we're just a couple of days into Fall. And really, there's nothing to stop you from making this now. That "Summer" thing can be our little secret. The best part of this recipe is that you can prepare it in advance and you have the main course, complete with starch and vegetables all in one beautifully arranged pan.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- Dill is not one of my favorite flavors. I will eternally be grateful to Jamie Oliver - and this recipe - for teaching me that I can substitute fennel tops for dill.

- I love that the potatoes and the green beans are boiled up in the same pot together. Some of my new potatoes were the size of grapes, so I added them a few minutes after the (slightly) bigger ones.

- For veggies I used green beans, sugar snap peas, and frozen garden peas.

- I've made a partial recipe, and baked it in a cast iron skillet. I've also made the full recipe in a roasting pan.

- The first time I made this I only scored each piece of salmon once and stuffed all of the herbs in, as you can see in the pictures. The next time I realized that the recipe's picture shows multiple scores, so that's what I did. The biggest difference was aesthetic, from what I could tell.


the verdict:

I loved the way the salmon and veggies looked in the pan, and even better, everything tasted just as good as it looked. The recipe provides great flavors and textures. The potatoes, beans and peas were perfectly cooked. The salmon was velvety, almost poached, and infused with the subtle taste of herbs. The basil and fennel complemented each other nicely, and the lemon kept everything fresh tasting. This would be a lovely dish to prepare for company.

7 comments:

NKP said...

Your presentation is so gorgeous!
Such a great meal, I love Jamie Oliver.
ps - my word verification is "brition"

Mary Ann said...

This looks so good and since my family loves seafood, I think I could get them to go for it! I love the fresh herbs and vegetables. It really does look so pretty.

Deb in Hawaii said...

Such a beautiful dish, the salmon in all the green. This one looks and sounds just about perfect to me!

Audrey said...

It truly is beautiful, and so elegant. I just wish (sigh) I liked salmon. But congratulations on eradicating the nasty dill!

Kayte said...

This looks wonderful and it does just scream summer! I love hearing how the veggies were cooked, always looking for new ways to do veggies as we eat a lot of them. I probably have the only kids in the entire world who woud eat any kind of vegetable any old time any way you want to serve it since they were really little. This all looks incredibly good. Oh, and poor Dill...I wish I could get it to grow here as I love, love, love dill and am always looking for things to put it on. The fennel tops look great.

Leslie said...

I love that you can make this in two pots and you're done! The flavors sound fantastic (I'll take your dill and you can have my fennel!)

Unknown said...

I love dishes that can be presented so beautifully and simply! This looks amazing! Salmon is one of my favorites and we have it so rarely around here. I really need to change that.