Roasted Salmon with Lemon Butter

Ingredients

Baking salmon is a really quick and easy way to cook the fish. Simply fry your salmon for a few minutes and then add to a hot roasting tray of fennel and lemon. Roast and drizzle with lemon butter. Delicious. And oh-so-simple...

FOR THE LEMON BUTTER SAUCE:

• 120ml (4fl oz) lemon juice
• 200g (6½oz) chilled butter, diced
   

FOR THE SALMON FILLETS:

• 1tbsp olive oil
• 1 fennel bulb, thickly sliced
• 2 lemons, thinly sliced
• 4 thick salmon fillets, with skin on

Method

1. Heat the oven to 220°C (gas mark 7). First make the lemon butter sauce. Bring the lemon juice to the boil in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Whisk in the diced butter, a little at a time, until melted and well combined. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly while cooking the fish.
2. Drizzle a roasting tray with a little olive oil and cover with the fennel and lemon slices. Place in a hot oven and roast for 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, season the skin of the salmon fillet with plenty of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Heat a large non-stick pan over a high heat. When it's hot, add the salmon, skin side down, and cook until the skin is golden and crisp (you may have to do this in batches).
4. Remove the tray with the fennel and lemon from the oven, and place the seared salmon fillet, skin-side up, on top. Return to the oven and cook for 5 minutes. Serve with the lemon butter sauce.

Top tips

Make sure the frying pan is really hot before adding the salmon - you want to sear the skin, rather than cook it.
This is a quick and easy way fpr baked salmon. Using large fillets is simpler than roasting a whole salmon and there is no carving required. The salmon fillets and vegetables are cooked in the same tray, saving plenty of time - and washing up. Fennel is used here, but you can replace it with thin asparagus or strips of courgettes.