Baked Salmon en Papillote with Blood Orange and Fennel
Baking salmon en papillote renders tender and flaky fillets every time. Kick it up a few notches with refreshing blood oranges, fennel, and toasted hazelnuts.
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Servings: 2 people
Equipment
- Parchment paper—two squares about 13 inches wide.
- Butchers twine
- Paper towels
- Mandolin (not required, but recommended)
Ingredients
- 2 5 oz fillets of Blue Circle Foods Atlantic Salmon
- Kosher salt and pepper, to taste
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced fennel (about 1/2 of a bulb) I recommend slicing it with a mandolin on this first and thinnest setting.
- 2 blood oranges
- Zest of one blood orange
- 1 lemon
- 1/2 of a large shallot, or one small shallot, thinly sliced
- 2 TBSP dry white wine
- 1 tsp olive oil
- fennel fronds, for garnish
- 1/4 cup roughly chopped toasted hazelnuts, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425º F.
- Take the salmon out of the refrigerator, take the fillets out of their packages, and place them onto a plate or cutting board. Blot the fillets with a paper towel and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Let them sit for about 15 minutes to let them come close to room temperature. This will ensure an even cook. In the meantime, prep your other ingredients.
Blood orange and fennel medley.
- Place the thinly sliced fennel into a mixing bowl. Over that bowl, zest one of the blood oranges, letting the zest fall over the fennel; set that blood orange aside. Take the other blood orange, and cut it into supremes (*see notes). Add the supremes into the bowl with the fennel, squeezing the juice from the leftover core over the fennel and oranges (there should still be a decent amount of juice left in that core!)
- Add the shallots to the medley. Drizzle in the olive oil and top with some fennel fronds. With your hands, gently toss the ingredients to evenly coat with the olive oil. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper on top and set it aside.
Salmon en papillote.
- Cut 1/2 of the zested blood orange and 1/2 of the lemon into thin slices. Place a few slices of each onto the middle of each segment of parchment paper.
- Place the salmon fillets on top of the citrus slices and top each of them with the blood orange and fennel medley. With the other halves of the blood orange and the lemon, squeeze a bit of juice over each fillet, then splash a little dry white wine over each fillet.
- Once everything is in place, take one of the sides of your parchment and fold it over the fish. After that, grab the other side, and fold it over, enclosing the fish. Twist the ends of the parchment one at a time, securing each end by tying butchers twine around it. (Or, you can fold the ends underneath the fillets instead of twisting them, and secure the packets with butchers twine in the middle, as pictured in the blog post. It truly doesn't matter how you fold it or tie it, as long as it's secure so no steam escapes.)
- Bake in the oven for 15-17 minutes, or until the fillets reach an internal temperature of 145º F, are opaque, and flake easily with a fork.
- When done, you can serve these in their packets or unpack them and transfer the fillets, along with the blood orange and fennel medley, to a plate.
- Top with fennel fronds and toasted hazelnuts (*see notes)
Notes
*How to cut orange supremes
- Slice off both ends of the orange. Place the orange with one cute end down on the cutting board to stabilize it.
- With a paring knife (or the smallest sharp knife you've got), carefully slice along the curve of the orange to remove the peel and the pith (the white part between the peel and the fruit). Once the peel is off, trim off any remaining white bits.
- Hold the peeled orange in one hand and, using your paring knife, cut along the membranes (the core of the orange) to free each segment. (The segments are supremes!) Do this until you've sliced each segment free. (It's easiest to do it over a bowl and let the slices fall into it.) Carefully remove any seeds with your paring knife.