Baked Salmon with Lemon Caper Butter

I freely admit that this recipe is completely ripped off from Matt at Wrightfood. This man is amazing at cooking seafood and even more amazing (if that’s possible) at photographing it! He wrote about an ingenious slow roasting technique for oily fish — let it come to room temp in olive oil and then bake at a low temperature for less than half an hour. Easy peasy.

And the sauce! Wow! The sauce is so. good. It’s the simplest thing in the world. He recommends adding herbs, but I don’t even think you need them. Which brings it to a grand total of three ingredients: lemon, capers, and butter. That’s it. That’s all you need. It’s a great sauce for any seafood. The lemon really stands out, but not enough to make you pucker. The capers bring their distinctive salty/briny flavor. And who doesn’t love butter? Did I mention it takes less than a minute to make from start to finish? Combined, they make a perfect sauce that can be served over any fish.

Serve this with a simple side, like roasted potatoes or some steamed brown rice. Everybody will think you spent hours slaving over the stove.

from Wrightfood

Baked Salmon with Lemon Caper Butter

serves 1

1 salmon fillet, 6-8 oz.
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons butter, divided
Juice from 1/2 lemon
4 teaspoons capers, drained

1. Coat fish in olive oil and set aside for about half an hour, until it reaches room temperature.
2. Preheat oven to 250°F. Sprinkle fish with salt. Bake in a small pan or dish for about 20 minutes, or until fish flakes with a fork.
3. When fish has 2 minutes left in oven, set a small sauce pan over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon butter. When melted, but still frothy, add capers and fry 30 seconds. Squeeze in lemon juice, and whisk vigorously for 5 seconds. Remove from heat, add remaining tablespoon of butter, and continue whisking until sauce comes together, another 20 seconds.
4. Drizzle sauce over fish and serve immediately.

The olive oil infuses the fish with flavor, and helps it form a barely noticeable crust while baking.

Flaky, salty, tangy, and absolutely perfect.

All the ingredients you need for the sauce: 2 pats of butter, half a lemon, and some capers.

The sauce was so zippy, I didn’t even need to squeeze the lemon on the fish!

Posted by jerseycook on June 1, 2010

https://jerseycook.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/baked-salmon-with-lemon-caper-butter-recipe/