Roasting Salmon to Perfection

It is tough to cook fish at home.  Let me rephrase.  It is tough to cook fish well at home.  It didn’t take many overcooked and dried fish before I gave up and vowed to only order fish at restaurants.

Yes, that was me until I came across an article on SeriousEats on slow roasting salmon.  The hands-off method claiming to never overcook the salmon intrigued me enough to give cooking fish another try.

The method is simple – letting the salmon cook slowly in a lower heat over a bed of aromatics for a longer period of time.  The versatility of the recipe lies in the fact that it can be easily altered to use whatever ingredients you have on hand.  I typically can always find some ginger and scallion.  To start, I create a bed for the salmon with 2 inch pieces of scallions and ginger slices.  The salmon should be resting to reach room temperature.  I use a soy glaze made of soy sauce, brown sugar, and a dash of Chinese cooking wine.  This is brushed onto the salmon before topping it with more slices of ginger and scallion.

Of course, you don’t always have to use scallion and ginger.  My prior attempt at JL’s with lemon, onion, and thyme worked wonderfully as well with a splash of white wine.  Thirty minutes on the clock (or 25 for a slightly thinner fillet) and that is usually when I make my sides or clean the room, whatever chores I have left to do.

Pull it out of oven and lift directly onto the plate and I like to drizzle with a little more of the soy glaze.  The fish will be tender and moist and it will make you wonder why we weren’t told about this earlier.  If you like a sear on your fish, you can always take it out and put it on a hot grill for a minute.  Bon Appetite!

Slow Roasted Salmon with Scallion, Ginger and Soy Glaze

• 2 fillets 1/3 lb to 1/2 lb of salmon
• 4 scallions, cut into 2 inch pieces
• A knob of ginger, cut into slices
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• A dash of Chinese cooking wine or rice wine