Baked Salmon with Watercress Sauce

Name: Baked Salmon with Watercress Sauce
Yield: Serves Six to Eight
Ingredients: 1 lemon, thinly sliced; 1 cucumber, thinly sliced; 2–3 kg/4½–6¾ lb salmon, cleaned with head and tail left on; 3–5 spring onions (scallions), thinly sliced; 3 garlic cloves, chopped; fresh dill sprigs, to garnish; lemon wedges, to serve; 200 g/7 oz/scant 1 cup unsalted (sweet) butter; salt and ground black pepper; 200 g/7 oz watercress leaves, finely chopped; 40 g/1½ oz fresh tarragon, finely chopped; 300 g/11 oz mayonnaise; 15–30 ml/1–2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preparation info

Serves
Six to Eight

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Complete Guide to Traditional Jewish Cooking

By Marlena Spieler

Published 2016

About

Whole baked salmon is a classic dish served at any simcha buffet, be it Bar and Bat Mitzvah feasts, wedding parties or any festival celebration. Baking the salmon in foil produces a flesh rather like that of a poached fish but with the ease of baking. The sauce is green flecked, tangy and hollandaise-like, yet easy to whip up.

Ingredients

2–3 kg/4½–6¾ lb salmon, cleaned with head and tail left on
3–5 spring onions

Fish course
Pescatarian
Gluten-free
Wedding/Marriage

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4. Rinse the salmon and lay it on a large piece of foil. Stuff the fish with the sliced spring onions and layer the lemon slices inside and around the fish, then sprinkle with plenty of salt and ground black pepper.