You’ll Never Cook Salmon the Same Way Again!

Source: http://tiphero.com/slow-cook-salmon/

Slow-roasting (a.k.a. turning your oven onto a significantly lower setting as a method of cooking food) is exactly how it sounds: slow. While slow-cooked foods tend to be juicy and flavorful, it can take some time to enjoy that cut of pork, chicken or steak with this method.

Unlike these cuts, however, is fish. One of the great perks of making fish for dinner (besides the great healthy oils and antioxidants they contain) is that things generally happen fast with fish. That’s easy enough to remember, right? Fish is fast.

Slow-roasting – which could take close to an hour for some cuts – takes only about 15 minutes with a slab of salmon.

Why? Food writer Harold McGee says this is because the tissue and protein structure of fish are more delicate than other meats, allowing it to cook much faster.

No complaints here.

While there are many methods to slow-cooking salmon, including putting a pot of boiling water in the oven with your fish or topping it with a zesty lemon relish, one of the most delicious techniques is brought to us by Sally Schneider in her book, A New Way to Cook.

You’ll need: a thin coat of olive oil, salt and an oven set to 275° F.

Spread the olive oil and salt to both sides of your salmon and place them on a cooking sheet. Sally suggests adding sprigs of thyme if you happen to have them for extraordinary flavor.

Once your salmon has slow-cooked for 15-20 minutes, you are ready to go. Sally also has an extensive lists of complimentary sauces to top your fish with in her book, The Improvisational Cook.

But the best thing about this method of cooking? It doesn’t just work on salmon. Sally found through her cooking adventures that this technique works on all seafood, from bass to cod to shellfish like sea scallops, and even on steakier fish like tuna or swordfish.

You can view Sally’s entire recipe here.

There are so many great speed antidotes that could be used – a certain tortoise and hare come to mind – but I won’t put you through that. Just remember that “fish is fast”, slow-cooking doesn’t have to be so slow…and go stock up on some salmon for dinner tonight.