Dinner in Minutes: Salmon with Capers and Dill
john barry
I get really excited when I find a recipe that contains nothing but ingredients that I always have around. Even more so when the recipe is quick enough to make on a weeknight - which for me, means it has to be super-quick. I have to confess that I miss taking more time to make dinner and not feeling rushed, but “the days are long and the years are short” so I know that dinner won’t always look and feel like an episode of “Chopped”. For now, dinnertime is a whirlwind and recipes like this one save the day. The prep (i.e . getting the ingredients out of your fridge/cupboard) takes less than 5 minutes, and the cooking times in the recipe were spot on for me. Paired with broiled zucchini, a lentil salad that I made earlier in the week and rice made in my programmable rice cooker (I set it in the morning and rice is ready by dinner - yay!) the entire meal took only 15 minutes to prepare from start to finish. Clean up was a breeze.
I’ll be making this again and again. I think it’s worth noting that Rachel Allen doesn’t mention the suddenly ubiquitous “brown butter” anywhere in the recipe. I assure you the butter the salmon cooks in turns an irresistible and nutty tasting brown but no buzz words are needed to sell this recipe.
Salmon with Capers and Dill
From Rachel's Irish Family Food: 120 Classic Recipes from My Home to Yours by Rachel Allen.
4 tablespoons butter, diced
4 salmon fillets (with the skin left on, if you wish)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons capers, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice mixed with 6 to 8 tablespoons water
4 teaspoons chopped fresh dill (I used 3 teaspoons dried dill)
10 minutes until dinner. Seriously.
Place a frying pan over medium-high heat. When it is hot, add a couple of pats of butter, very quickly followed by the salmon, with the skin side down. Fry for 3 to 4 minutes, until golden brown underneath. Turn over, season with salt and pepper, and fry for another couple of minutes, or until the fish is just cooked through. (The timing will depend on the thickness of the salmon fillets and heat of the pan.)
Crispy skin and all that lovely brown butter. I wish you could smell this.
Add the capers, along with the remaining butter, and lemon juice mixture and boil for 1 minute. Season to taste, adding more lemon juice or water, if necessary. Transfer the salmon onto warmed plates, stir the chopped dill into the sauce, and pour over the fish to serve.
Knives down!