Salmon in a parcel

Well, the weather is still glorious - without wishing to jinx it, it feels like we've had weeks of blue skies and sunshine. Cooking has been quick and/or easy and I've had to be flexible, menu planning, then throwing the menu plan out of the window and knocking up something with what I bought which takes into account the fact that we spent longer than planned at the beach.

I had some lovely salmon from my friendly fishmonger, and have been thinking generally about fish. Even though we're just over the county border in Ceredigion, next week is Pembrokeshire Fish Week, and there has been a lot about it coming up on my Twitter feed, so fish has been on my mind more than usual. I've become acquainted with a couple of people involved in the fishing industry here, and you wouldn't believe how little of the fish & shellfish caught round here ends up on our plates. Mostly it heads off to Europe. And that, if you ask me, is a crying shame.

But I'm not here to go into the politics of the local fishing industry - it's an emotive subject and round here it would be more than my life's worth to try and tease out the complexities. Let's just say I'm trying to buy more local fish. In fact, a great local alternative to salmon here would be sea trout - also known as Sewin in these parts, fished from the beautiful River Teifi. It would work brilliantly in this recipe. Speaking of which...

So, we were going to have salmon fishcakes from an old Good Food mag, but by the time we got home from the beach, I just wasn't in the mood to do anything, and it was quite late, so I wrapped the salmon up in a foil parcel with some butter and dill, banged it in the oven, and bingo. Dinner. 

It probably took just as long as the fishcakes would have done, but it was loads less faff, and all in the oven (I used the fishcake-destined potatoes to make wedges in the oven) other than a bit of steamed asparagus and mange-tout peas, so could do post-beach clear up and get the kids through the shower, at the same time it was cooking.

Salmon (or Sewin) in a parcel

500g piece of salmon
small pack of dill, thick stalks removed, finely chopped
around 25g unsalted butter
salt & freshly ground pepper
tin foil

Pre-heat your oven to 220C. 

Pull out enough tin foil to make a double layered parcel around your salmon.

Place the salmon in the middle, scatter with pieces of the butter and the dill, grind over some salt and pepper, then seal up the parcel and pop in the oven.

Bake for 15-20 minutes depending on the thickness of the salmon.

If you open the parcel and the fish needs a little longer, just scrunch it closed again and pop it back in the oven.