Jamie Cooks Spring
By Jamie Oliver
Stuffed roasted salmon with Jersey Royals
Spring asparagus & wild garlic pesto
1 hr 10 mins plus resting
Not Too Tricky
serves 12
About the recipe
Jersey Royals are one of the heroes of springtime, and need to be embraced when you see them. I’m making double use of a deliciously optimistic wild garlic pesto, both as a dressing for the spuds and as part of an epic stuffing for this showstopper roasted salmon. It looks super-fancy, but is actually straightforward to put together, perfect for a celebration meal with people you love.
Recipe From
Ingredients
olive oil
1 bunch of mint (30g)
1 fresh red chilli
1 handful of wild garlic
1 lemon
1 bunch of asparagus (350g)
1 large handful of breadcrumbs
2kg Jersey Royal new potatoes
2 x 1.2kg sides of salmon, scaled and pin-boned, from sustainable sources
8 slices of higher-welfare prosciutto
1 bunch of thyme (20g), ideally the flowering kind
PESTO
1 handful of wild garlic
1 bunch of flat-leaf parsley (30g)
50g blanched almonds
50g Cheddar or Parmesan cheese, or a mixture of the two
extra virgin olive oil
Top Tip
No pestle and mortar? No problem! You can absolutely make the pesto in a blender or food processor, you’ll just get a slightly smoother texture than the rustic one you get from a pestle and mortar.
Method
- Preheat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF/gas 7. To make a stuffing for the fish, put a large non-stick frying pan on a medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Pick in the mint leaves, reserving the stalks, then finely slice and add the chilli. Tear in the wild garlic leaves, with any flowers, and finely grate in the lemon zest.
- Snap the woody ends off the asparagus and finely slice the stalks, leaving the tips whole. Add it all to the pan to cook for a couple of minutes – remember it will continue to cook inside the salmon later.
- Season the mixture with sea salt and black pepper, toss in the breadcrumbs, tip onto a board and leave to cool.
- For the pesto, tear the wild garlic leaves and parsley into a pestle and mortar with a pinch of salt, and pound into a paste. Bash in the nuts, finely grate in the cheese, and muddle in about 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil to give you a spoonable pesto. Now, I like to finish it with just a little squeeze of lemon juice, which isn’t traditional, but cuts through nicely.
- Season the flesh side of each side of salmon with salt and pepper, then spread 2 tablespoons of pesto across each.
- Lay out 7 pieces of string (about 30cm in length), about 4cm apart, and sit one of the salmon sides on top, skin-side down. Spoon over the filling and pat and press it all over the salmon, then sit the other side on top, pesto-side down.
- Lay over the prosciutto slices, then drizzle the bunch of thyme with oil and scatter the sprigs over the salmon. Tie the pieces of string together around the salmon, securing everything in place.
- Slice the remaining lemon, and arrange in a large greaseproof paper-lined tray, then sit the stuffed salmon on top. Place in the oven, then immediately reduce the temperature to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4, and roast for 35 minutes, or until beautifully cooked through.
- Put the mint stalks into a large pan of salted boiling water, then add the potatoes, halving any larger ones. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, or until tender, then turn the heat off and leave them to steep in that lovely mint water.
- Remove the salmon from the oven and baste with the juices in the tray. Let it rest for 10 minutes, then remove the string and the thyme.
- Drain the potatoes, discard the mint stalks and – while the potatoes are still hot and steaming – dress with the remaining pesto.
- Slice the salmon, and serve with the pesto-dressed potatoes and a simple seasonal salad.
- If you can’t get hold of wild garlic, you can swap a bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley into your stuffing mix, and replace it with any soft herb you fancy for the pesto: think basil, mint, rocket or simply double parsley.
- I’ve used almonds for the pesto, but feel free to swap in what you’ve got – hazelnuts, pistachios or pine nuts would all work a treat.
If you want to be ahead of the game, you can prep the stuffed salmon the day before, then cover and keep in the fridge overnight. Just get it out an hour before you want to cook, so you’re not cooking it from super cold.
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