We decided to treat ourselves this week to wild salmon.
Most of the time, it’s much more economical, if you are cooking salmon to go for the farmed kind of salmon. It is better for the environment, particularly if you select the type of farmed salmon that comes from responsible, sustainable fisheries. But this time, we treated ourselves to the wild variety, still from sustainable sources, which means that when the fish is caught, it is done responsibly and does not deplete the stock of wild salmon in the rivers.
Wild salmon has a different texture to farmed salmon, the flesh is denser and there is less fat, I think it’s because the fish have been swimming in the wild and are exercising a lot more, it’s a little bit special treat on a few occasions.
Some years ago, I learned about sustainable fishing whilst working on a project. It made me think more about where food comes from.
You can visit the website about Forever Fish to find out more about fish and sustainability, I think we should all try to do our bit, however big or small. Since then we try to choose sustainably sourced fish whenever we can.
Back to the recipe:
This is such a simple dish to make and comes from Jamie Oliver, we first watched him prepare this on telly a long time ago. It’s one of those simple recipes that you don’t really need a recipe book for once you’ve made it and discover how simple it is.
It is so tasty, I wish you could be transported to within the photo to be able to smell the lovely scent of the wild salmon with roasted veg.
In a pre-heated hot oven, (220 c) put a deep roasting tray in with a drizzle of olive oil.
Place two salmon fillets into the tray, season with salt and pepper and lemon juice, on the other side of the tray, place your vegetables into the tray.
I think in Jamie’s original recipe, there are olives, fine green beans, small baby tomatoes, garlic and a small tin of anchovies, but you can use any type of veg as long as it’s been cut fairly small – such as baby sweetcorn to change things up a bit.
It’s the anchovies that make this dish so flavourful, infusing their briny saltiness into the vegetables so that the taste of the sea comes to life.
With all the juices from both the veg and salmon mingled together, this is what makes this taste so stunning.
We like this with french fries or on this occasion, we made these little cubed roasted potatoes, just par boil the cubed potatoes so that they are just on their way to being cooked, put them in a hot tray that’s had some olive oil heating in the oven. Smother them with the hot olive oil and bake with the salmon tray bake at the same time. They may need to be put into the oven ahead of the salmon -about 20 mins for the potatoes, depending on how big the cubes have been cut.
The salmon and veg, should cook in about 10-15 mins (check at around 10 mins) as it depends on the thickness of your fish fillets and how you prefer them – well cooked or just done.
Enjoy!