baked almond-honey salmon

another cooking lesson with mom in her kitchen… except this time, i was teaching mom how to cook! :) i’ve been having fun taking mom & dad on some culinary adventures in clean eating & cultural cuisine. on a recent visit, mom had some fresh coho salmon fillets in the fridge and i thought it would be the perfect opportunity to channel my inner julia! and so it became a lesson on cooking en papillote…

quoi? en papillote (french for ‘in parchment’) is a cooking technique where you bake food in a folded parchment paper bag (placed in a baking dish) and essentially steam the ingredients to lock-in the juicy flavours. although some may think it’s fancy-schmancy, it’s quite a simple way to prepare fish and poultry. perfect for an easy weeknight meal or weekend brunch-a-roo…

and check out that coho salmon… gorgeous, isn’t it?

almond-honey marinade:
combine & fold together the following ingredients in large prep bowl:
– 3 tbsp honey
– 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil (evoo)
– 1/2 cup whole almonds (crushed in mortar & pestle)
– dash of ground nutmeg

baked coho salmon:
– pre-heat oven to 350F
– place 4 fillets of fresh coho salmon in almond-honey marinade, cover both sides evenly (using your hands to roll the salmon fillets in the marinade bowl)
– carefully place almond-encrusted, marinated fillets into cooking parchment paper, in a baking dish
– add 1 large shallot (rough chop) over salmon fillets
– fold cooking parchment paper into a packet & tightly fold paper bag inside baking dish
– bake salmon for 20min at 350F, or until fish is cooked

– after removing baking pan from the oven, use scissors to cut a small opening in the parchment paper and tear the packet open. be careful of the steam escaping from the papillote.

food styling:
– plate baked salmon on a large serving platter
– pairs well w/ quinoa or rice pasta