To roast the salmon, preheat your oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking pan or sheet with aluminum foil (for easy clean up). Place your salmon fillets skin side down and brush with olive oil and season with salt and black pepper. Place in the preheated oven and immediately reduce heat to 425 degrees F and bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and cover with foil and allow to sit to complete cooking. If you prefer your salmon slightly rare in the center, cover for only 2 to 3 minutes. If you prefer it cooked through, cover it for approximately 8 to 10 minutes, depending on the size and thickness of your fillets. I cooked 2 large fillets (a little over 2-1/2 pounds). The cooking time is the same regardless of whether you cook only 1 portion or a larger portion like I did. I intentionally made extra.
What makes this roasted salmon dish even more special and elegant is the super easy Dijon Cream Sauce w/ Dill that only takes about 5 minutes to make. You won't believe how simple it is to make and it uses simple ingredients found anywhere. If you don't have fresh dill available, substitute dried dill weed (and use half the amount because it's more intense than fresh). I use cream as the liquid part of this sauce but you can use half and half, milk or even a milk alternative if that's what you have on hand. I actually experimented a bit tonight and used half cream and half unsweetened cashew milk to see if I could tell a difference, and I couldn't. I snapped a quick photo of this beautiful and simple meal. We had steamed organic broccoli with our salmon. This sauce would also be great on top of steamed broccoli, too, if you like. The recipe for my easy peasy Dijon Cream Sauce w/ Dill is below. Enjoy!
Dijon Cream Sauce with Dill
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons cream cheese
1/2 cup cream or half-and-half (plus extra to thin sauce as necessary)
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard (I used coarsely ground)
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard powder, or to taste
1 to 2 teaspoons fresh dill, chopped (or half the amount if using dried)
Directions:
Melt butter over low heat in a small saucepan. Add cream cheese and whisk until melted, whisking vigorously until blended smooth. Stir in cream, Dijon mustard, salt, and pepper and whisk until blended. Heat just until sauce begins to simmer (careful not to boil). Whisk in dry mustard until blended. Stir in dill. If necessary, add additional cream to thin sauce to desired consistency. Serve over chicken or fish.
*Note: Don't worry if it appears like your cream cheese has separated or curdled as it melts into the butter; it hasn't. Simply whisk vigorously until it pulls together with the butter and becomes smooth before adding the cream and other ingredients.
Hi GGC,
ReplyDeleteWe went to Costco today for more Copper River salmon. We picked up some to enjoy now and just a couple of packages for the freezer. We froze it successfully last year and it was just as good as fresh ... well, almost ... you'd be *very* hard pressed to tell that it had been frozen, though. We had it for dinner a couple of times in the dead of winter and it was a real treat to have it then. You've come up with the perfect sauce for it, too!
Hi CyberSis,
ReplyDeleteGood to know it freezes well. I'm hoping to get some more this weekend because I know the season can't be that much longer. Did you re-wrap it or freeze it in the package from Costco? I'm keeping my fingers crossed they'll still have some. :-)
Hi GGC,
ReplyDeleteHow we do it is to cut the filets into serving pieces (about 4 per filet) and freeze them individually on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Then we wrap them individually and pack them into a zip-loc freezer bag. I believe the recommendation is to use them within 6 months for best quality and flavor. This has worked well for us. We don't freeze a lot of it, just a couple of filets to stash away for a couple of special mid-winter dinners. Hope it works well for you if you decide to try it.
Hi CyberSis,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tips! I don't know why I didn't think about cutting it into pieces first! Much better than freezing the entire fillet. I'm looking forward to picking up more tomorrow! I've eaten it almost every day for lunch, too (with a small side of spinach pie). :-)
Copper River Salmon did not get to Texas this year via Costco. And several batches of wild Sockeye have been unedible--sticky and not fresh. Lucky you to be in a place where Copper River arrived this year!!
ReplyDeleteWill need to try this lovely recipe on wild sockeye.
We routinely cut and snack-bag individual pieces, then load into a vacuum seal bag; past year the Coppy River tasted fresh until exhausted in May; the wild Sockeye fresh quality only endured through Jan and we are certain it is the Omega oils.
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteToo bad your Costco did not get any Copper River Salmon this year. So far I've been lucky and ours has had it the past few weeks. Great idea vacuum packing it. I need to remember to do that, too! :-)