Slow Cooked Huon Salmon with Orange and Fennel Salad

Slow-roasting makes a beautifully tender, evenly cooked, not-one-bit-dry piece of salmon. Despite the name, it’s still quick at 45 – 60 minutes in the oven and is perfect for entertaining. It’s very forgiving because of the low and slow method, and best served warm and will happily sit at room temperature for up to 1 hour before serving.

Leftover salmon can be stashed in the fridge, to pull off chunks to add to a salad, flaked into scrambled eggs, topped onto slices of chunky sourdough with crème fraiche and caper berries, or stuffed into tacos.

The salad recipe serves 6 – 8 people as an entrée with plenty of left salmon. If you want to serve the salad as a main course for 8 people, just double the salad ingredients.

Preparation:: 10 Minutes
Cooking:: 45 Minutes
Serves:: 6-8

Ingredients

1 1kg Fresh Huon Salmon Fillet
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large bulb fennel, trimmed, reserving the fronds
1 large orange
⅓ cup small black olives
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp white wine vinegar
1 handful of mint leaves
¼ cup roasted almonds, roughly chopped
Salt & pepper

Method

1

Preheat oven to 100C and line a large baking tray with paper.
2

Season both sides of the salmon with some salt and lay the salmon fillet on the baking tray skin side down. Remove the zest of the orange and mix with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Brush the salmon with the orange and olive oil mix.
3

Bake the salmon in the preheated oven, depending on the thickness of your salmon, it should take between 45 minutes to 1 hour to cook. The salmon is done when the thickest part feels just firm to the touch. Remove from oven and set aside until ready to serve, it’s best served warm or at room temperature.
4

While the salmon is cooking, shave the fennel using a mandolin or a vegetable peeler then place in a bowl of ice water. This makes the fennel super crispy and curly.
5

Drain the fennel, spin dry, toss into a mixing bowl with the mint leaves, orange slices and olives. Pour over the extra olive oil and white wine vinegar and toss everything together. Season to taste.
6

When the salmon is cool enough to handle, break into serving size chunks, you may not need to it all for the salad. Scatter half of the fennel salad over a platter, then arrange the salmon pieces on top. Scatter the remaining fennel mixture over the salmon and top with toasted almonds and reserved fennel fronds.