Description
A festive Christmas baked salmon recipe featuring a honey butter glaze, creamy dill sauce, and a bright holiday tapenade of cranberries, almonds, and pomegranate seeds. This elegant main course is perfect for holiday celebrations and is best served warm or at room temperature with fresh lemon wedges.
Ingredients
Scale
Salmon
- 1.5 kg salmon side (skin on, bones removed)
- 2 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
Honey Butter Glaze
- 150 g unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup honey
- 3 garlic cloves, finely minced
Creamy Dill Sauce
- 1 1/2 cups full fat sour cream
- 1/2 cup fresh dill, finely chopped
- 1/2 eschallot (French onion), finely grated
- 1 1/2 tbsp lemon zest
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
Holiday Tapenade
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1 cup orange juice
- 1 cup slivered almonds, toasted
- 1/3 cup parsley, roughly chopped
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Finishing
- 1 pomegranate, seeds only
- 1/4 cup parsley, roughly chopped
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 lemons, cut into 6 pieces each (for serving)
Instructions
- Make Creamy Dill Sauce: Combine sour cream, fresh dill, grated eschallot, lemon zest, and salt in a bowl. Stir until smooth and refrigerate until needed.
- Prepare Holiday Tapenade: Heat orange juice in a saucepan over high heat until hot but not boiling. Turn off the heat, add dried cranberries, cover, and let stand for 15 minutes to plump. Drain in a colander and discard the juice. In a bowl, mix plumped cranberries, toasted slivered almonds, chopped parsley, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Let come to room temperature before serving.
- Preheat Oven and Prepare Salmon: Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a baking tray with a double layer of foil, then top with baking paper. Place the salmon side skin down on the paper, folding foil sides up slightly to contain glaze.
- Make Honey Butter Glaze: In a saucepan over medium-high heat, melt butter with honey and minced garlic. When it begins foaming, reduce heat to medium and let it foam for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately pour glaze evenly over the salmon.
- Season Salmon: Sprinkle kosher salt and black pepper over the salmon, concentrating most salt on the thicker end.
- Wrap and Bake: Cover salmon with a smaller piece of parchment paper, then foil. Seal edges loosely to form a parcel. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.
- Uncover and Prepare for Broiling: Remove salmon from oven, unfold and remove the foil and paper cover, folding sides out of the way to expose salmon surface while preventing paper from catching fire.
- Broil to Brown: Switch oven to grill/broil on high and place salmon on middle shelf. Broil for 10 minutes until caramelized around the edges and slightly on top. Check doneness by prying open the center or using a temperature probe aiming for medium doneness (54°C / 130°F).
- Transfer and Cool: Using foil overhang, carefully transfer salmon to a serving platter, leaving the juices pooled. Loosely cover with foil and let cool for at least 15 minutes or up to 1 hour to allow flavors to meld and serving at room temperature.
- Assemble and Serve: Spread the creamy dill sauce in a 0.8 cm thick layer over the salmon. Pile holiday tapenade on top, scatter with pomegranate seeds and remaining parsley, and drizzle with lemon juice. Serve with extra lemon wedges. Cut into portions using a cake cutter and encourage dipping into the honey butter sauce mixed with the cream sauce.
Notes
- Use a whole salmon side with skin on and bones removed for ease of cooking and serving.
- If using table salt instead of kosher salt, reduce salt quantity by 25% due to finer grain size.
- Toast almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly for about 2 minutes until fragrant and lightly browned.
- Check salmon doneness by prying flesh open or measuring internal temperature (rare 43°C, medium-rare 49°C, medium 54°C).
- Can substitute trout for salmon; adjust recipe quantities and cooking time accordingly.
- For dairy-free, replace sour cream with thick hummus and parsley with fresh cilantro for a Middle Eastern twist.
- Serve salmon warm or at room temperature; avoid piping hot to prevent sour cream from sliding off.
- Make tapenade and sauces up to 24 hours in advance; store almonds separately and add before serving.
- Leftovers keep for 3-4 days refrigerated; reheat gently to maintain sauce texture.
- Use extra lemons for fresh squeezing as bright acidity complements the dish perfectly.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving
- Calories: 320 kcal
- Sugar: 8 g
- Sodium: 450 mg
- Fat: 20 g
- Saturated Fat: 9 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 9 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 12 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 28 g
- Cholesterol: 70 mg
