Christmas Baked Salmon
Your Christmas main dish for this year has just landed!! Have you ever seen a Baked Salmon look so festive?? Featuring a honey butter-glazed side of salmon baked in foil, slathered with creamy dill sauce and finally topped with a Holiday “Tapenade”, this pays extremely high dividends for minimal effort. The flavour and textural combination is stellar! It’s mostly savoury with hints of sweet, and that creamy dill sauce is a natural pairing with salmon. Finally the Holiday Tapenade topping just sings of festivities!
Present the salmon whole on a platter, like pictured above, so everyone can admire how pretty it looks.
Then you can either cut it into portions – literally just use a knife to cut it – or let everyone help themselves. I find it easiest to use a cake server for actually lifting slices to serve easily, so you might like to also provide something like this if you’re allowing guests to serve themselves.
Ingredients:
SALMON:
- 1.2 – 1.5 kg / 2.4 – 3lb salmon side (skin on, bones removed)
- 2 1/4 tsp salt , cooking/kosher
- 1 tsp black pepper
HONEY BUTTER GLAZE:
- 150g / 5oz butter , unsalted
- 1/2 cup honey
- 3 garlic cloves , finely minced (garlic press or knife)
CREAMY DILL SAUCE:
- 1 1/2 cups sour cream , full fat (low fat is too watery)
- 1/2 cup fresh dill , finely chopped (lightly packed cup)
- 1/2 eschallot (French onion) , finely grated
- 1 1/2 tbsp lemon zest
- 1/2 tsp salt , cooking/kosher
HOLIDAY "TAPENADE":
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1 cup orange juice
- 1 cup slivered almonds , toasted
- 1/3 cup parsley , roughly chopped
- 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
FINISHING:
- 1 pomegranate , only the seeds
- 1/4 cup parsley , roughly chopped
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 lemons, extra , cut in 6 pieces each (for serving, don't skip this)