Mary Berry’s Crusted Salmon with Samphire and Preserved Lemon Sauce
This simple midweek meal from Mary Berry pairs a zesty preserved lemon sauce with golden semolina-crusted salmon.
From the book
Love to Cook
120 recipes from the nation's favourite cook
Featuring all of the recipes from the accompanying BBC2 series
Celebrating fuss-free cooking and the ingredients and flavours Mary loves
Introduction
The semolina on top of the salmon gives a lovely crust and the paprika adds to the flavour and colour. The sauce is bursting with sharpness, and if you wish to preserve your own lemons see page 202 of Love to Cook – they are also available from good greengrocers, fish shops and in supermarkets. Samphire is a lovely, salty, green plant that grows naturally by the marshes and on the coast.
Ingredients
| 25g (1oz) | semolina |
| 1 tsp | paprika |
| 4 × 125g (4½oz) | salmon fillets, skinned |
| A large knob of | soft butter, plus extra for greasing |
| Small bunch of | parsley, stalks removed and reserved |
| 175g (6oz) | samphire |
| ½ | lemon, cut into 4 wedges, to serve |
| For the lemon sauce: | |
|---|---|
| 1 large or 2 small | preserved lemons, quartered and pips removed |
| juice of ½ lemon | |
| 3 tbsp | mayonnaise |
| 200g (7oz) | crème fraîche |
Essential kit
You will need: a food processor.
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/Gas 6 and butter a baking sheet.
Sprinkle the semolina and paprika on to a large plate and season with salt and black pepper. Spread the top of each salmon fillet with the butter and press the fillets, buttered side down, on to the semolina to give an even crust.
Lay the parsley stalks on the baking sheet and sit the salmon fillets on top of the stalks. Bake in the oven for 15–18 minutes, until the salmon is just opaque and the top is crisp and golden. If liquid is beginning to seep out of the salmon, it is overcooked – it should be holding the juices.
To make the sauce, gather up the parsley leaves and place in a food processor. Add the preserved lemon(s) and whiz until finely chopped. Add the lemon juice, mayonnaise and crème fraîche and season with salt and pepper – go easy on the salt as the lemons are preserved in brine. Process until finely chopped.
When you are ready to serve, boil the samphire in salted water for 2 minutes, then drain, and heat the sauce gently until just melted.
Arrange the hot salmon fillets on a plate with the samphire, sauce and a lemon wedge alongside.
Mary’s tips:
Salmon can be prepared with crust on top up to 4 hours ahead. Sauce can be made up to 2 days ahead.
