Holiday Feast: Lemon & Dill Confit Salmon
I am so excited to finally start sharing our Christmas Day recipes with you! I have spent the last couple of months in my kitchen creating and testing a range of dishes I know you'll love to make for your family and friends during this festive holiday Christmas season. Not only do I love creating a festive holiday tablescape, I also also love making food that makes people smile.
This Lemon and Dill Confit Salmon is the new hero on your Christmas Day Menu and the "wow" factor on your Christmas Day table. There is nothing more fragrant and summery than a beautiful side of the freshest, sashimi grade salmon that has been skinned, cured and cooked low and slow in a bath of warm fat, which in this case is sunflower oil! It's an experience you won't forget and will not doubt feature every holiday. It's ultra delicate and fresh, with every bite literally melting in your mouth and it's surprisingly easy to cook too!
Thanks to the curing mixture of dill, salt, sugar and lemon, there's a delicate citrus yet sweet and salty hum that totally compliments the delicate flavour of the salmon that has been confited in a light, nutty sunflower oil. The texture is very similar to smoked salmon but this confit salmon it's softer and buttery. You may think this dish should be on the menu in a top notch restaurant, but in fact, it belongs in your kitchen, cooked by you. Want to switch up your Christmas Day Menu and serve a beautiful, delicate, refreshing side of salmon? Here's how you do it...
What does confit mean in cooking?
It's a traditional French cooking method and was originally referred to preserving and slowly cooking food in liquid such as fruits, for example, would be confited in sugar syrup. Nowadays, however, it tends to refer to food that's been slow-cooked in fat (such as oil) and not necessarily aged or stored.
Serving Size: 6 people
Ingredients
1 side of salmon (serves 6 people) or 6 salmon fillets (1 per person), skinless and deboned
1 lemon, zested
2 tbsp fresh dill chopped finely
3 tbsp flaky sea salt, such as Maldon Salt (not table salt!)
3 tbsp caster sugar
Sunflower oil (you may need at least 1.5L)
Micro herbs and fresh dill, for garnishing
Method
Keep the deboned skinless salmon in the fridge until later on.
In a medium sized bowl, combine lemon zet, dill, salt and sugar and mix well.
Rub the salmon with the zesty mix on both sides and place the salmon in the fridge uncovered for 45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 80C. Remove the salmon from the fridge and lightly remove the zesty mix under cold water (not lukewarm or warm water). Pat dry.
Place the salmon in an ovenproof dish that's deep enough to cover the salmon completely in sunflower oil. If you have purchased a whole side of salmon like I did, you may need to cut the salmon in half to fit into two baking dishes. Cover the salmon completely in sunflower oil. Make sure there is no salmon exposed. Place the salmon into the oven straight away.
Cook for 20 minutes and remove the salmon from the oven. Technically, the curing has cooked the salmon but the confit has warmed it up.Carefully remove the salmon using a egg flip or slotted spatula. Lift it up slowly, let the oil drip off the salmon and set on serving plate. You may notice some white dots on the salmon, this is nothing to be worried about - it's just salmon fat that has been pushed up through the flesh during the confit stage.
Garnish with micro herbs and dill. And enjoy!
