Salmon with Fennel, Citrus & Chiles

Fresh salmon is so delicious that you don't even have to do much to it to make it mouth-watering. This recipe is a great example of that. You get a lot of just pure salmon flavor, bumped up a bit by citrus, fennel and some spicy chiles. I made this once before when blood oranges were in season, and although it's good with regular oranges, the blood oranges were definitely better. They have a much brighter, more tart flavor that fused with the fennel and salmon better, so if you can find blood oranges, I recommend using those. This is a really simple recipe (found in Bon Appetit) that only requires a little prep, and some slow roasting time in the oven, and before you know it you're eating some spectacular-tasting salmon. 

1-2 lb. skinless salmon filet

Salt & pepper

1 fennel bulb

1 blood orange (or navel orange)

1 lemon

1 Fresno chile or jalapeño

Fresh dill sprigs

1/4-1/2 cup olive oil

Sea salt

First, preheat your oven to 275 degrees. Place your salmon in a glass baking dish and season it with salt & pepper. If you have skin it's not a big deal, just put it skin-side down and make sure to remove it before serving. Now it's time to prep your fruits and veggies. Thinly slice the fennel bulb, orange, lemon and chile. You can do this with a nice sharp knife, or if you are like the Hubs and are obsessed with the mandoline, that works for the fennel and chile, not so much for the citrus. Once you've sliced everything up, arrange the fennel, chile and citrus plus four sprigs of fresh dill over the top of the salmon. The first time we made it, we followed the directions and put this on the bottom but the result was really tasty fennel, and absolutely no flavor in the salmon. We switched it around this time and that helped. Season one more time and then pour the olive oil all over the top. The original called for 3/4 cup of oil but that just seemed like a ton to us. 

Now, bake for about 30-40 minutes. We went for the full 40 this time and it was perfect. Sprinkle the salmon with sea salt before enjoying. We also found it helped to squeeze some of the citrus over the top of the salmon. Hope you enjoy the clean, simple flavor!