Salmon with potato-broccoli puree

Healthy eating rules suggest you to eat fish for at least once a month. I have tried to follow this principle and served whiting casserole or creamy salmon for at least once a week. But one should look around for different recipes, otherwise eating fish might become dislikable. And I did not have any cream at hand as well. So, this time I decided to go for regular oven baked salmon, which I haven’t tried before because I have always been afraid that the salmon might come out dry. The recipe is from Thredahlia, I have tried to translate it as it was in Estonian. Served the fish with potato-broccoli puree.

Salmon (serves two):

400 g salmon

0.5 lemon

1 tbsp butter

dill, salt, pepper

For the sauce some butter and dry white wine

# Take fresh salmon, place on a foil. Foil has to be large enough to wrap around the fish comfortably.

# Sprinkle salmon with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Take a pat of butter and cut into small pieces. Dot pieces onto surface of salmon evenly.

# Wrap the foil around the fish and keep at room temperature for about 15-20 minutes. At the same time heat the oven to 200 degrees C. Bake at 20-30 minutes depending on the thickness of the salmon (the fish is ready when it is nice and pink). Remember that salmon continues to cook after it is removed from the heat source, so don’t overbake it, otherwise you’ll end up with dry fish.

# When removed from the oven, open one corner of the foil and pour the fish sauce into a bowl. It will be used for sauce. Wrap the foil and keep the fish in the foil for about 5-10 minutes.

Sauce:

Heat the butter in a saucepan and add about 100 ml dry white wine. Simmer until the wine is reduced until 30 ml. Then add about 200 ml fish stock (and some water maybe), adjust seasoning and bring to boil. Remove from heat and add some parsley.

Potato-broccoli puree

3-4 potatoes, peeled and cubed

100 g broccoli florets

chicken stock

2 tbsp cream cheese

1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

1 tsp basil pesto

1 tsp butter and 50 ml warm milk (optional)

# Place potato cubes in a cold water seasoned with salt and bring to boil. Place broccoli florets into another saucepan, cover with chicken broth and bring to boil. Boil the vegetables until tender.

# When broccoli florets are soft (most likely before the potatoes), drain and keep the broth. Place the florets into a bowl, add cream cheese, Parmesan and basil pesto. Puree the potful. If not smooth enough, add some chicken broth and stir.

# Drain the soft potato cubes and puree the potful. If you want extra smooth result, add some butter and warm milk.

# Before serving mix broccoli puree with potato puree and serve. Delicious!

# If you make a larger amount of the puree, you can use leftovers the next day for lunch. Fry some bacon pieces and mix them with the puree. Simple and very tasty.

Oh, and if you haven’t yet seen it, then go and watch WALL E in the cinema. Very sweet cartoon, a love story between robots. Definitely worth watching. I heard it might get an Oscar. I would vote for it!