Baked Salmon Fillet With Watercress, Spinach & Coconut Sauce Recipe

I’ve been waiting about a month to make this recipe. You know, finding good salmon isn’t the easiest things in the world to do. I’ve been reading a lot about seafood lately and I think I’ve become rather picky about where it comes from. Take salmon for instance – I don’t purchase the farmed stuff from Chile, so I’m forced to wait for the salmon from the north of Maine to become available. Last week it did, so I bought almost three pounds of it. It’s been sitting in the freezer waiting for a recipe just like this to come along.

The Recipe

If I had the chance, I could eat salmon every night of my life. And I probably could find a different recipe for each time I ate it. In this case, things are really simple. I pulled a great looking recipe from Williams-Somona‘s Seafood cookbook and was very pleased with how things turned out.

The preparation comes in pretty much two parts. The first part deals with putting together the watercress sauce and the second part deals with the baking of the salmon. The whole process shouldn’t take more than a half hour, so definitely give this one a try. It’s worth it because it’s fabulous.

Ingredients

Serves: 4

For the Sauce

2 Tablespoons Butter
1/2 Sweet Onion, Chopped
1 Tablespoon All-Purpose Flour
1 Bunch Watercress, Stemmed
1 Cup Packed Spinach Leaves
3/4 Cup Vegetable Broth
1/4 Cup Coconut Milk
Salt
Ground Black Pepper

For the Salmon

4 6-8 Ounce Salmon Fillets
Salt
Ground Black Pepper
Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

Step-by-Step Instructions

If you can’t find watercress, feel free to substitute with parsley or basil. Personally, the next time I make this dish, I’m going to add a few different things to see how it turns out. Also, I used coconut flour instead of regular flour and it was really good. I’m preferring this type of flour lately. Finally, if you don’t like coconut milk, you can use heavy cream for the sauce. Both are excellent choices.

Pre-Heat the Oven

Arrange one of the oven racks so it’s in the center position and pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees.

Make the Sauce

In a medium sized saucepan, add the butter and onion and warm over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until the onion becomes translucent. At that point, stir in the flour and cook for another 2 minutes, making sure the flour doesn’t begin to brown. Then, stir in the watercress and the spinach and cook until both of these ingredients begin to wilt. After that, add the vegetable broth to the pot and let simmer for 5 minutes. Finally, add the coconut milk and let it melt in for about a minute or so. Add a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper as well.

When all of this is done, pour the contents of the pot into a food processor and run for about 15 seconds or until the sauce has broken down thoroughly. When finished, set everything aside for later use.

Bake the Salmon

Add about a teaspoon of olive oil to a large skillet. Then, place the pieces of salmon in the skillet skin side down.

Add some more olive oil to the salmon as a coating and then sprinkle some salt and pepper over each piece. Finally, add the skillet to the oven and let roast for exactly 10 minutes. After that, remove the skillet and turn off the heat.

Warm, Plate & Serve

While the salmon is roasting, add the contents of the food processor to a small saucepan and warm over medium heat on your stove top for a few minutes. It will likely cool while the salmon is in the oven and the dish is best served hot.

When the salmon is finished, carefully transfer each piece to its own plate. Then, divide the sauce between the plates. Scoop it out and spread it around the salmon and serve.

The Final Dish

I really do like this dish. The salmon is cooked perfectly and the sauce is wonderfully tasty. Every bite of the salmon I took, I smothered it in the sauce, which was awesome. Enjoy!