Spring Time Lunch: Baked Salmon with Parsley Sauce

Ingredients

For the Salmon

4 x salmon filets of about 150gr / 5 oz. each

Juice of one lemon

1 x tbsp of olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the Sauce

15gr / 0.5 oz. unsalted butter

15gr / 0.5 oz. plain flour

300ml / 10 fl oz. semi-skimmed (half fat) milk

2 x heaped teaspoons of Dijon mustard

A large handful of flat leaved parsley chopped very finely

Salt (easy on the salt as the mustard can be salty)

Preparation

To bake the Salmon

Pre-heat your oven to 200°C / 400°F.

Place aluminium foil in a roasting tray. Enough so that you can wrap the fish in it loosely. Place the fish on the foil. Drizzle over the oil and the lemon juice. Sprinkle over the salt and the pepper.

Cover your fish with the foil, making a loose parcel.

Place the tray in the oven and allow to bake for 7 to 12 minutes. The cooking time will not only depend on your oven, but also on how thick the salmon filets are.

While the salmon is baking you can make the sauce.

To Make the Sauce

Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed pan. Not a non-stick pan.

Add the flour and mix it, using a metal whisk, until it is covered with the butter (a few seconds)

Add about half third of the milk, whisk vigorously, it will be lumpy, don’t worry.

Once this is thickened into a mass, add the other half and whisk until smooth.

Turn the heat down to low, add the mustard and parsley with a little salt and mix it through with a wooden spoon, let it sauce simmer very gently for a few minutes.

If at any point you feel the sauce is too thick, add a little bit of milk.

Check for seasoning and serve.