Cooking the Xmas books 2019/2020. Alison Roman’s buttered salmon with red onion and dill.

The subtitle to Alison Roman’s book Nothing fancy is ‘Unfussy food for having people over’- the simple honesty of that phrase, both describes perfectly the recipes contained in this lovely book but at the same time belies the clever twists contained in many of them.

From the recipes that I have tried so far they all seem to have a clever layering of tastes and textures without any laborious or difficult techniques. We had this the other night with the ‘garlicky Broccoli and greens with hazelnut and coriander’ and it was bloody delicious and incredibly unfussy.

You can also follow Alison on instagram or at the NYT food site

The recipe

ingredients

1kg piece of salmon (I always keep skin on)

1 lemon sliced thin

1/2 red onion, sliced thin

Maldon salt and pepper

6 tbsp of butter (you could use a little less)

4 tbsp olive oil 

2 tbsp capers

small bunch of fresh dill

toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 165C.

Lay the piece of salmon on a low rimmed baking sheet 

Season the fish liberally with salt and pepper.

In a non stick pan heat the butter and olive oil and cook the lemon and HALF of the onion slices until getting caramelized. Add in the capers the last minute or two.

Pour this sizzling brown butter mixture over the salmon and place in the preheated 325F oven to bake. 

Cook the fish 12-15 minutes ..... this will result in ’just cooked’ salmon which may be verging on translucent in the centre, I like it that way but if you prefer it ‘fully cooked’ then leave it for 15 -17 mins.

Remove the fish to a platter and scatter the other half of raw onion slices and fresh dill on top. Then add the toasted sesame seeds. Squeeze some lemon juice all over the top.

Serve