1. Salmon - Get a whole side of salmon in one piece. It should come with skin on (holds together better for moving once cooked) and bones removed (nobody wants pokey bones with a mouthful of Christmas Salmon!). Place salmon on diagonal of tray if it's too large. A bit of overhang will be fine (on the thinner end). See Note 5 for fillets and trout alternatives.
2. Salt - Cooking/kosher salt is the standard for all my recipes. The grains are larger than fine table salt so it's easier to pinch and sprinkle. If you only have table salt, you MUST reduce the salt quantities by 25% otherwise your food may be too salty (because table salt is so fine, 1 tsp table salt =~ 1 1/4 tsp cooking/kosher salt).
Cooking/kosher salt is sold labelled as such at the grocery stores - here's a photo of cooking salt and here's a photo of Diamond Crystal kosher salt, a leading brand used in the US(not easily found in Australia).
3. Toasting almonds - Preheat skillet over medium heat (no oil). Add nuts then stir for 2 minutes or until they smell amazing and are lightly browned. Keep them moving as they burn easily! Transfer to bowl straight away to cool.
4. Cooked salmon - you can just pry open flesh in middle to check. Otherwise, internal temperature of cooked salmon is 43°C / 110°F for rare, 49°C / 120°F for medium-rare, or 54°C/130°F for medium. Grill cooks fast so just leave in for longer if you want it cooked more, move down to lower shelf to reduce browning.
No grill/broiler? Just crank the oven up as high as it will go and put salmon in uncovered to brown and finish cooking.
5. Alternatives for ingredients (in order of recommendation where multiple given):
- Salmon - Trout is an ideal direct sub (though typically smaller, so scale recipe down or use multiple);
- Salmon fillets rather than whole side - bake in foil 10 minutes, then grill/broil 10 minutes). Would also be VERY pretty in individual portions so it looks like this.
- Smaller salmon side -eg the middle or just the tail end. For anything around 600g / 1.2lb and larger, follow recipe as written in terms of cook times butscale quantities down by clicking Servings and sliding down until you hit the target salmon weight.
- Butter - Best is ghee or clarified butter (store bought or homemade) for dairy free alternatives, followed by margarine.
- Honey - Maple syrup, but simmer for an extra 1 minute to reduce a bit further
- Sour Cream - The only suitable sub is spreadable (tub) cream cheese but that's a bit thick so would need to be thinned with a touch of olive oil to make it in a soft spreadable paste as pictured in the video. If you use block cream cheese, you'd need even more oil for thinning. Yogurt is too watery.
- Dill - Classic herb for salmon, but can sub with chives or finely chopped green onions.
- Almonds (all should be roasted, unsalted) - Whole (preferably blanched) almonds roughly chopped yourself, pistachios, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, macadamias.
- Nut allergy subs - Pepitas or sunflower seeds
- Dried cranberries - Craisins, dried sour cherries (roughly chopped), golden raisins*, normal raisins* or sultanas*, any other dried fruit like apricots* chopped (items marked with * add 2 tbsp lemon juice into hot water for plumping, will add touch of tartness like cranberries have)
- Orange juice - Apple juice, any other non-thick fruit juice, water + 2 tbsp honey
- Parsley - Chives or green onions
- Pomegranate - These add colour and juicy little pops to the dish. No fruit provides anything quite similar in terms of colour but for flavour, best is to use red (seedless) grapes. Cut into 1/6 or 1/8, about 3/4 cup. Cherries also work!
- Dairy free version -give it a Middle Eastern spin by using hummus instead of sour cream (just be sure it's a nice thick consistency you can slather on), and instead of parsley use fresh coriander/cilantro instead (roughly chopped) and increase to 1/2 cup. It's really, really good, I made it with fillets. It's a Christmasy version of Salmon Tarator, a traditional Middle Eastern dish from which this recipe was inspired.
6. Serving - Dish is best served warm or at room temp, not piping hot. If at room temp, make sure it is still warm enough so honey-butter-salmon juices are liquid not firmed up (if solidified, melt 10 sec in microwave or 2 min in very low 50°C/120°F oven is enough, can do this on serving platter).
Do not spread piping hot salmon with sour cream, it melts and slides off.
Skin is needed for easy handling of salmon while cooking but it's not pleasant to eat because it's not crisp in this recipe. People can either just avoid eating, or you can portion it without skin (it's easy to slide cake serve between flesh and skin)
Be sure to serve with extra lemon wedges, this is a dish that loves fresh lemon!
7. Make ahead - Excellent for preparing most ahead with simple assembly on day.
- Tapenade - 24 hrs in advance (fridge) but keep toasted almonds in pantry and stir in before serving (few hours ahead is fine), ensure it is at room temp when using.
- Creamy Dill Sauce and Honey Glaze - 24 hours ahead, fridge (glaze will need to be reheated to make pourable).
- Pomegranates - bash out the seeds the day before! See in post for how;
- Salmon - better baked fresh on the day but it is still stellar cooked the day before (based on all leftovers I have been inhaling!). But honestly, reheating cooked salmon is just as much effort as baking fresh, in my opinion!
8. Storage -Leftovers will keep for 3 - 4 days in the fridge. Allow to come naturally to room temperature. Do not microwave or oven reheat, the sour cream will melt.
9. Nutrition per serving, assuming 12 servings 1.5kg/3lb salmon. With all the toppings, this is almost a main course size serving. So if it's part of a banquet with other mains, this will easily stretch to 16 - 20 people.
