Salmon is a brilliant choice for dinner when you want something healthy, but it will not be as tasty as it should be if you just place it in the oven. Nobody wants to eat soggy fish, but Mary Berry has shared In her cookbook 'Love To Cook', that a simple way to give salmon a much better texture is to coat it in semolina.
Mary said: "The semolina on top of the salmon gives a lovely crust and the paprika adds to the flavour and colour." Semolina is a coarse flour that makes salmon much crispier so you have a beautiful golden crust that also is incredibly flavourful without having to spend ages cooking.
It helps dry the skin on salmon so it browns better in the oven and also creates a barrier around the dish to prevent it from sticking to a baking tray.
Preparing semolina coated salmon takes less than five minutes, and then it takes around 18 minutes to cook so you can make this delicious dinner in less than 30 minutes.
How to make Mary Berry's crispier salmonIngredients
For the salmon:
- Four salmon fillets
- 25g of semolina
- 175g of samphire
- One teaspoon of paprika
- Small bunch of fresh parsley (separate the leaves and stalks)
- Half a lemon (cut into four wedges)
- Salt and pepper
For the lemon sauce:
- Juice of half a lemon
- Three tablespoons of mayonnaise
- 200g of crème fraîche (full-fat)
- Two small preserved lemons
Instructions
To begin, preheat the oven to 200C (180C for a fan oven or Gas Mark 6). Next, prepare a tray by lining it with baking paper and greasing it with butter.
Add the semolina, paprika, salt and pepper to a large plate. Coat the top and sides of each salmon fillet with butter, then press it into the seasoning mixture until you have a crust.
Place the parsley stalks on the tray and add your salmon on top. Place in the oven and cook for 15 to 18 minutes until the top is golden and perfectly crispy.
To make the lemon sauce, place the parsley leaves and preserved lemons into a blender and blitz until you have a smooth paste. Pour into a pour then add the lemon juice, mayonnaise and crème fraîche.
Then all you have to do is gently heat the lemon sauce in a pot until it has warmed up. If you wish, you can season the sauce with pepper but be careful not to add too much salt as the preserved lemons will have been kept in a brine.
Once the salmon is almost ready, add the samphire to a pot of salted water and let it cook for two minutes.
To serve, place the parsley stalks and salmon on plate, then add some samphire and a lemon wedge to the side. Drizzle with the lemon sauce a
