Salmon chunks on a bed of cavolo nero, Italian black kale, and topped with broccoli florets baked in a velvety bechamel sauce. A delicious one pan wonder.
Salmon Wednesdays
Salmon is the most popular fish in the UK, the cod or haddock of fish and chips notwithstanding. No wonder: it comes in boneless fillets, it’s easy to cook and the nutritional value matches its taste.
Oily fish is a good thing to eat, thanks to the omega-3 fatty acids it contains, which in turn have anti-inflammatory, cholesterol-balancing and heart health supporting benefits. And so we should, and in my house we do eat salmon at least once a week.
But as with meals you have on such a frequent basis, if it’s cooked in the same way it becomes rather samey. So in order to prevent such an important element of our diet from becoming boring, I try to find new ways with salmon.
Salmon tray bake
Grilling or baking salmon fillets is the usual approach but it might be more interesting in a tray bake or a gratin, however you wish to call this recipe. It’s a one pan dinner as well, with two vegetables and a creamy bechamel sauce all in one dish.
It is also a great template to spin off, varying the vegetable options, as suggested further below.
How to prepare the vegetables
The broccoli and cavolo nero need blanching: the bake spends less than half an hour in the oven and that is not quite long enough to cook them through. But microwaving is a very good method of parboiling vegetables, in a non-metallic bowl with a splash of water.
Broccoli should be cut into florets, evenly sized. It will take about three minutes to blanch them in a microwave at full power.
Cavolo nero requires a little more attention, as the stalks are tougher than the leaves. Strip the leaves off the stalks and chop the latter finely, then microwave for a couple of minutes. Now add the leaves, shredded, into the bowl with another splash of water and microwave together for four minutes or until tender with a slight bite.
How to make bechamel sauce
Here’s a tip: make four times the amount you need for this recipe and freeze the surplus in portions. That way you’ll be able to make delicious gratins whenever you fancy. And lasagne!
Still, it’s not difficult. Equal volumes of butter and flour are cooked together to make roux, to which milk is whisked in gradually. Bechamel needs to cook off for a few minutes even after it’s thick enough to your liking, to acquire a taste and flavour better than milky-floury.
Seasoning as a standard is salt, pepper and grated nutmeg which does wonders flavour-wise, plus in this instance some mustard, chopped dill and a little Parmesan.
Assembling the bake
The salmon should be skinned: this is not a recipe that features any crispy skin. Cut it into chunks, about bite sized or slightly larger, to avoid overcooking.
This time, as seen in the pictures, I’m using the wild Alaskan sockeye salmon, but purely because I love that variety. For the recipe though, any salmon you usually buy, farmed or wild, preferably MSC certified, is good to use.
The cavolo nero goes on the bottom of a buttered gratin dish. The next layer is the salmon, and after that the broccoli florets, each layer seasoned with salt and pepper.
Bechamel sauce covers the lot and at this stage the dish can be refrigerated until needed, even overnight.
Baking takes twenty minutes, no more, so the salmon does not overcook.
You can serve it with some nice mashed potatoes but I usually make a point of having it on its own, carbs-free.
Options
The first obvious swap is kale for cavolo nero. You can also use spinach or chard, but make sure it’s well drained. Ordinary, shredded and blanched cabbage will do well too but it will need to be buttered and seasoned more generously.
Instead of broccoli, use cauliflower or Romanesco, divided into florets and microwaved a minute longer than broccoli.
More salmon recipes
Simple and perfect grilled salmon fillet seasoned only with salt and olive oil. Keep the skin on and grill it for five minutes on each side - that's the whole secret.
Salmon shakshuka: spicy tomato and pepper base with chunks of fresh salmon poached in the sauce. Swap the eggs for salmon and serve shakshuka for dinner!
Salmon fillet cooked with oyster sauce and a touch of brown sugar is a perfect umami storm. Salmon gently simmered in the sweet and salty sauce with spring onions and crushed garlic is ready in 10 minutes.
More gratin recipes
Fish with mushroom gratin: haddock, turbot or sole fillets baked au gratin, covered with delicious mushroom sauce topped with crisp breadcrumbs. It’s a dish that looks very impressive and is, in fact, very easy to accomplish.
Creamy cauliflower and walnut gratin with a crunchy Parmesan breadcrumb topping is a lighter, more refined take on cauliflower cheese that makes an easy, elegant vegetable side dish.
Potato and fennel gratin, a super-comfort dish of sliced potatoes and fennel baked in a garlicky cream with a generous sprinkle of Gruyere or Cheddar.