By Melissa Clark
- Total Time
- About 40 minutes
- Rating
- 4(193)
- Notes
- Read community notes
All my other relatives served gefilte fish at holiday meals, but not Aunt Sandy. Instead of breaking the fast on Yom Kippur with gefilte fish, kugel and bagels and lox, she made potage Parmentier, pesto pasta salad and, her masterpiece, sweet and sour fish in a shimmering aspic.
In my version, I reduced sugar and substituted balsamic for the sharper wine vinegar. I added raisins and sliced lemons, an idea stolen from a similar recipe I found online. I eliminated the peppercorns, which were unpleasant to crunch, adding aromatic thyme instead.
Finally, because I didn’t want aspic, I substituted prepared fish broth for the mess of boiling bones. The broth was light and refreshing with a gentle acidity that was balanced by the sweetness of the raisins. And the fish was succulent and rich and suffused with flavor.
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Ingredients
Yield:8 appetizer servings
- 6cups fish broth
- 3garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
- 1bay leaf
- Salt
- freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1small red onion, thinly sliced
- ½bunch thyme
- 8center-cut skin-on wild salmon fillets, 3 ounces each
- ½cup golden raisins
- 1small lemon, thinly sliced
- ¼cup balsamic vinegar
- 2tablespoons light brown sugar
- Challah, for serving
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
236 calories; 7 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 19 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 10 grams sugars; 24 grams protein; 732 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large pot, simmer fish broth with garlic, bay leaf and salt for 15 minutes.
Step
2
In a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, scatter red onion and half of the thyme. Place salmon on top, skin side down, and season with salt and pepper. Scatter remaining thyme, raisins and lemon on top.
Step
3
Stir vinegar and sugar into broth and let simmer for 1 minute to dissolve sugar. Remove garlic and bay leaf from broth; carefully pour broth over fish. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until fish is just cooked through to taste. Serve hot, warm or cold, with challah for dipping into broth.
Ratings
4
out of 5
193
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Cooking Notes
John
Anytime you prepare a shrimp dish, you can put the shells in a pot of boiling salted water (1-2 quarts depending on the strength you want) and in just a few minutes you will have a perfectly serviceable "fish broth". Freeze for future uses.
Anne-Marie
Kitchen Basics has a seafood stock. I find it at Whole Foods.
Linda Newman
Love the combinations of flavors. Worth buying the golden raisins. Fabulous sauce, I served it with brown rice. This recipe is a keeper. thank you.
Laurie
Better Than Bouillon makes very good highly concentrated soup bases. They make a good Fish Base, which is good for this recipe as well as seafood chowders, seafood risotto, etc.
Wildbill1998
I Know Walmart has it on the shelf next to the Chicken, beef, and vegetable broths. Hope this helps you.
Karen DeLaria
For those of us who are inherently lazy, MORE THAN GOURMET has tons of stocks, both solid and liquid. I use their fish stock for my étouffée. Works like a charm.
amy
Wegman's grocery stores carries Kitchen Basics fish stock. I will be using this to make the salmon.
Karen L Davis
Excellent. Cut recipe in half, used a smaller baking dish and served hot for dinner for 2. Used vegetable rather than fish broth but gave it the same treatment. A very different mix of flavors for salmon.
Glen
What is fish broth and can a kosher version be purchased? If not, is there a recipe or substitute?
Noel
The braise liquid doesn't thicken and it was way too much for the dish. And it didn't thicken up. However, it will make a good soup base for another day. Next time, I'll use half the amount of broth. BTW lobster stock works well.
Dan
6 cups of broth sounds like too much liquid for a 9 x 13 pan. Is the salmon supposed to be fully submerged and boiled? I'm going to try this with 2 cups.
Deb
Jewish folks who keep kosher do not eat seafood, as it’s not kosher. No shrimp shells for our fish broth.
Harris
Served in bowls with challah, as suggested. Even our daughter who doesn’t like salmon — so she says — ate this with gusto. With fresh thyme from the garden this was very tasty. I microwaved the onions for a minute first since it didn’t seem like the time for the salmon would get them cooked; I’m glad I did.
Hania
Why is this recipe in the stovetop salmon collection when it calls for roasting it in an oven?
David C Morris
Nice. Is this not sarde in saor made with salmon instead?
Ann
I made this dish with what I had in the kitchen. I used Knorr powdered chicken broth instead of Fish stock and dried Thyme instead of fresh. I also used Steelhead Trout instead of salmon. I used about half the broth and it turned out really well. My husband remarked it was “Excellent”. I will make it again soon. I served the broth in a separate dish for dipping. Next time I will make sure to have some Par-baked French bread to pop in the oven with it instead of sliced rye bread!
Deborah
Strained the leftover broth from the zucchini noodle with garlic mussels dish strained, and got about 4 cups, which was plenty - I didn't need 6 cups - that would have overflowed the baking dish. It worked as a base because there was already garlic and thyme seasoning in it. I just added the sugar and balsamic vinegar to it for this recipe. Whole family loved it. Eaten with sliced French bread instead of challah. Will make this again.
Bill
For me, salmon is an expensive entree and I'm sorry I wasted it on this dish: ultimately more an amalgamation of distinct parts than a true recipe. The salmon wound up watery from the six cups of broth. I wondered at that amount, but followed directions. No directions are given about what to do after the dish is removed from the oven. Leave it in the broth? Remove to a plate? The onion slices, the lemon slices, the raisins, the thyme, the watery fish: together on a fork but not on the palate.
Aidan
I take a couple of pounds of white-fleshed fish bones, rinse them off, and plop them in a stock pot with 1 T. kosher salt, white white and enough cold water to barely cover the bones. Then I add half a small onion, chopped, a stalk of celery, diced, a diced carrot, a bay leaf, and a sprig of time. I bring the stock to a full simmer, partially cover it, and let it simmer - not boil - for 45 minutes. Remover from heat and cool. When cool, strain, and freeze in one or two-cup portions.
elliot
I like to rehydrate raisins with a bit of piping hot liquid before adding them to dishes like this!
Laurie
Better Than Bouillon makes very good highly concentrated soup bases. They make a good Fish Base, which is good for this recipe as well as seafood chowders, seafood risotto, etc.
Karen L Davis
Excellent. Cut recipe in half, used a smaller baking dish and served hot for dinner for 2. Used vegetable rather than fish broth but gave it the same treatment. A very different mix of flavors for salmon.
Mary
I'd like the recipe for the Pesto Pasta Salad.
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