Baked Salmon with Pernod

Not orange, and very easy (though I did almost burn the rice). The recipe is from a little book that my sister gave me for Christmas (from the UK, called the Hamlyn All Color Cookbook: 200 Make-Ahead Dishes).

This was my second new recipe of the day, and the first to use our brand new oven, which gave off a weird smell (making me very nervous), but otherwise seems to work OK.

The verdict? Well... again, it was nice, but not spectacular. The Pernod flavor was extremely subtle and seemed mainly to be detectable in the veggies, rather than the fish. And the veggies were overdone by the time the fish was cooked. For first problem, wondering if it would have been a good idea to do the parcels in advance, and let them marinate in the fridge for a while (I'd thought this was something you could do, not something you should do). Not sure what to do about the second problem. Hmmm... But it was nice enough that we'd try it again.

The Recipe: Baked Salmon with Pernod

1. 2 oz. butter
2. 7 oz. bok choy
3. 7 oz. fine asparagus
4. 4 salmon fillets, about 5 oz. each
5. 1.5 inch piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
6. 10 tbsp Pernod or Ricard
7. Salt and pepper
8. Cooked plain rice to serve [I did jasmine rice]

Serves 4

1) Butter 4 large pieces of foil. Separate the bok choy leaves and thickly slice the larger ones. Trim the asparagus and cut each stem into 2 or 3 pieces, depending on length. Divide the vegetables between the pieces of foil and place a salmon fillet on top of each one.

2) Divide the remaining butter between the salmon fillets, sprinkle with the ginger and a little seasoning, then drizzle with the Pernod. Bring the foil up and over the salmon and seal well. Chill the parcels until required [i.e. you can prepare the meal up until this point, then pick it up again later - but see comment above].

3) Cook the parcels on a baking sheet in a preheated oven (350F), for 25 minutes. Unwrap one of the parcels and pierce the center of the salmon. If it flakes easily and the flakes are all one color they are ready. If not, cook for a few more minutes and then retest. When done, serve over rice.

Thoughts/Tips/Mistakes

You probably need to start the rice and parcels at same time. The salmon took about 15 mins longer to cook (maybe our oven? hard to tell) so the rice, which I'd forgotten about, had time to catch up.

We couldn’t find a little bottle of Pernod, so had to invest in a big one, which was a little annoying. Other Pernod recipes, anyone?

Pix

Forgot to take pix of the parcels before cooking, but here’s the end result. The veggies really do look as though they were overcooked by about 75%.