Oven-Baked Pink Salmon with Herbs and Lemon

Name: Baked Pink Salmon in the Oven with Herbs and Lemon
Prep time: 1 h 30 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 2 h 30 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Pink salmon, char or salmon (about 1 kg) 1; Rosemary, thyme, tarragon a few fresh sprigs; Lemon 1; Olive oil 3-4 tbsp; Sea salt and sweet red paprika 0.5 tsp (3 g); Ground black pepper, dried Italian herbs to taste; Ground hot pepper (chili) optional; New potatoes 6-8 small tubers; Olives a few; Lemon for serving; Herb sprigs for serving

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2 h 30 mins

For a festive table, you often want to serve a beautiful fish dish as the main course, and one that isn’t hard to make. We usually bake large whole fish with red flesh. Any salmonid is good for baking: pink salmon, char, salmon itself and some kinds of trout. Perfectly suitable fish for oven baking is easy to find in stores.

The best-known fish of the salmon family is pink salmon. It is, perhaps, one of the smaller members of the genus living in the Pacific Ocean. Ocean pink salmon look much like similar fish: silvery, with a dark blue or green back and an almost white belly. When they enter river mouths to spawn, their color changes dramatically. They also develop a hump, hence the name.

Pink salmon is often considered a “trash fish”, especially when farmed. More valuable species that are better for cooking are successfully farmed, caught and sold. These are various kinds of char, such as Arctic char and kundzha. Any of them is good for baking, considering that “real” pink salmon is quite rare in stores. What matters is that the fish is fresh and fits your baking tray.

The flesh of “red” fish is very delicate. When scaling the fish, you have to be extremely careful: the skin is quite tough, but the flesh under it can turn to mush. Often it’s best not to scale the fish at all and bake it with the scales on. In that case the skin isn’t eaten. There is little waste in the fish: the head, innards and gills are usually removed before it goes on sale.

First of all, examine the fish. If it is stiff and curved, and has lost its shape, it is better not to buy it. The gills should be red and odorless. If the fish is gutted, the inside should be pink. The fins may dry out during long storage. The skin should be smooth, with no signs of peeling away from the flesh.

All salmonids, such as pink salmon, char, trout and so on, are great for baking. They can also be braised and fried. Large pieces of fillet or grilled steaks. They are especially tasty. When you cook pink salmon in the oven (or any similar fish), handle it extremely carefully at every step. The flesh is so delicate that it can fall apart when you turn it over or move it to a platter.

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Ingredients

4 servings

For the fish
Pink salmon, char or salmon (about 1 kg) 1
Rosemary, thyme, tarragon a few fresh sprigs
Lemon 1
Olive oil 3-4 tbsp
Sea salt and sweet red paprika 0.5 tsp (3 g)
Ground black pepper, dried Italian herbs to taste
Ground hot pepper (chili) optional
For the side dish
New potatoes 6-8 small tubers
Olives a few
Lemon for serving
Herb sprigs for serving

Step-by-step recipe

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Preparing the fish

For pink salmon to bake evenly in the oven, choose a fish that fits your baking tray. You can lay it diagonally.
Clean and rinse the fish. If you bought the fish with the head and innards, gut it carefully by slitting the belly. Then cut off the head and rinse the whole fish well under cold running water. If you plan to eat the skin, carefully remove all the scales.
Mix the spices. In a bowl, mix 1/2 tsp of sea salt (3 g) and sweet red paprika. You can add a little ground hot pepper. Add ground black pepper and a mix of dried Italian herbs too: oregano, savory, thyme, parsley and so on.
Score the fish, rub it with the spices and refrigerate. Pat the fish dry with paper towels, especially the belly cavity. Put it on a cutting board and make 3-4 diagonal cuts on each side, 1.5-2 cm deep. Rub the fish with the spice mix, especially thoroughly in the cuts and inside the belly. Cover the fish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 to 1 1/2 hours to cure.

Baking

Baked pink salmon, like any other fish, takes on the aroma of the oil you brush it with. The simplest option is to bake it together with sprigs of fragrant herbs. Unfortunately, at high temperature they can burn.
Make a “cushion” on the baking tray. I do it simply: on a tray greased with olive oil, I lay a few sprigs of rosemary, thyme and tarragon. Then I slice a lemon thinly into rounds and lay it over the herbs. The herbs hardly burn under the fish, and the oil becomes fragrant.
Fill the belly with herbs and lemon. Take the fish out of the fridge and brush off any visible bits of spice. You can tuck halves of thin lemon slices into the cuts. Put a sprig of each fresh herb and a few lemon slices into the belly cavity.
Brush the fish with oil and put it in the oven. Brush the fish generously with olive oil and lay it on the cushion of herbs and lemon slices. Pink salmon, salmon and char are not fatty fish at all, so drizzle a little more olive oil over it. Preheat the oven to 180-190°C and put the tray with the fish in.
Bake the fish uncovered, basting it with oil. Depending on size, pink salmon takes 30-60 mins to bake in the oven. Denser fish may take longer, while delicate char will be ready sooner. Oil collects in the tray: be sure to baste the fish with it for more even baking, so the lean fish doesn’t dry out. After 20-25 mins you can carefully pull out the visible herbs from under the fish. They will burn less, and they have already done their job of flavoring. Be sure to brush the protruding lemon slices with oil too, as they can also start to scorch.
Fry the potatoes next to the fish. Frying boiled new potatoes in the oil that collects in the tray with the fish turned out to be a very good idea. Boil 6-8 small tubers until tender and add them next to the fish 10 mins before it is done. For better browning, turn the potatoes every 2 mins.
Check for doneness. Carefully cut into the fish inside the belly next to the backbone, at the thickest spot. If the flesh there is cooked through and opaque, the pink salmon is fully baked.

Serving

Move the fish to a platter. Prepare an oblong serving platter that fits your fish. With a spatula, carefully separate the tail and the whole fish from the bottom of the tray. If possible, remove all the sprigs of aromatic herbs. Move the fish onto the platter with the utmost care.
Arrange the fried potatoes, herb sprigs and a few olives around the fish. Slice a lemon and add it to the platter too. Serve the fish hot. By the way, it is easier to cut the fish not with a knife but with a spatula, right along the cuts on the sides of the fish.

Calories and macros

535 kcal

Serving ≈ 310 g

Protein54 g42% of kcal
Fat23 g41% of kcal
Carbs22 g17% of kcal

100 g172 kcalProtein 17.4 gFat 7.5 gCarbs 7.1 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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