Roasted Salmon With Fennel and Lime

- Total Time
- 45 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 2limes
- 1teaspoon fennel seeds, lightly crushed using a mortar and pestle or the flat side of a knife
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 4(6- to 8-ounce) skinless salmon fillets
- 1large fennel bulb with fronds
- Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
- 6fresh marjoram or thyme sprigs
- Flaky sea salt, for serving
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Finely grate the zest from 1 lime into a small bowl, and set aside the zested lime. Add fennel seeds, ½ teaspoon kosher salt and ½ teaspoon pepper to the bowl and toss to combine. Sprinkle mixture all over salmon.
- Step 2
Meanwhile, remove the fennel fronds from the bulb and chop up enough to make ¼ cup. Trim fennel bulb, discarding stalks, and slice bulb thinly using a mandoline or a sharp knife. Spread half the fennel slices in a baking dish in an even layer and drizzle with oil. Arrange salmon on top.
- Step 3
Slice the whole, unzested lime into thin rounds and lay the slices on top of the salmon. Tuck marjoram around the salmon and drizzle salmon generously with more olive oil.
- Step 4
Roast until salmon is just cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes. (Thinner fillets may take less time, so start checking for doneness at 10 minutes.)
- Step 5
Meanwhile, toss chopped fennel fronds and remaining fennel slices with a pinch of salt in a medium bowl. Juice the zested lime and add some of the juice to the fennel, to taste. Drizzle the sliced fennel with olive oil and set aside to serve with the salmon.
- Step 6
When the salmon is done, drizzle it with more lime juice and sprinkle with flaky salt. Serve with the fennel salad on top, and the roast fennel on the side, if you like.
Private Notes
Comments
A few questions...1- After all, we don't have lime trees in our gardens and commercially purchased fruits are processed. The lime zest contains waxes from the packing and shipping protocols . Is there any way to remove theses waxes before using the fruit? 2- Is it possible to use lemon in place of lime?
Looks over thought. If you want buttery, smooth, velvet salmon (or steelhead or Arctic char) just steep it. Bring water to boil, turn off the heat, drop in the fish and let it sit for 6 minutes per inch. It's super simple.
I am privileged to catch my own salmon and cook a lot of it. I avoided roasting for a long time. . Finally I turned around on this but only through the use of THREE important steps. First very low heat, IMHO 325 F is too high, I use 275 F. Second, have your salmon at room temperature before it goes in. Third, aim at 120 F internally.
This is fantastic in taste and in presentation. It felt a little skimpy so I doubled the fennel seeds, olive oil, fennel and lime juice. Also basted the salmon half way through. Amazing! The slaw is really great.
I like orange and fennel together, so I used orange instead of the lime and added some orange segments, carrot curls, and toasted walnuts to the slaw. We really enjoyed this combo.
Double the fennel so there’s more roasted Worth a good piece of salmon - made 1 lb fillet but did not halve ingredients Cook fennel first at 400 Turn down to 300 and lay fish and lemons on top Use thermometer to get to 120 degrees - very perfectly not overdone
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