Oven-Baked Crispy-Skinned Saffron Sockeye Salmon

Wild Salmon

The following method is the easiest and tastiest way I know to cook wild salmon with the added benefit of being fast and mess-free to prepare. So, perfect for week night dinners! We buy our wild Sockeye salmon in frozen single portions from a reliable source at the farmers market. Each piece is about 7 ounce, so I usually make 3 pieces and we have it for dinner and pack the rest for next day’s lunch. We both like our salmon with a crispy skin (that’s the only way I am willing to eat the skin!) and since I am not a fan of frying I came up with the following method to cook the fish in the oven. The ingredient list is very small, but a good quality piece of fish doesn’t need much to taste delightful. I usually top this fish with some herb and chia dressing and serve it alongside dill-saffron rice and a nice fresh salad.

wildSalmon

Ingredients:

  • 3 larger (approx. 7 ounce) or 4 smaller (approx. 5 ounce each) pieces of Skin-on Wild Sockeye Salmon
  • 4-5 Tsp. Saffron Water (crushed saffron threads soaked in water)
  • Sea Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (Bake setting) . Line a baking sheet with a piece of unbleached parchment paper.
  2. Place the salmon pieces skin side down and put in the centre rack of oven for about 5 mins until the salmon is thawed. (skip this if you have fresh salmon instead of frozen)
  3. Season each piece with generous amount of sea salt and freshly ground pepper and pour the saffron water on top of fish with a teaspoon and use the back of the spoon to cover the whole fish.
  4. Bake the fish for about 10 mins.
  5. Set the oven to broil and cook the fish for another 5 mins until the flesh is golden.
  6. Take the fish out of the oven and flip to skin side up. Broil for about 5 mins until the skin is crispy. Enjoy!

Serves 4.

Leave a Reply