Baked Salmon

Ok Mr. Peabody, fire up the wayback machine! (extra points for anyone who can tell me what that references).

Salmon wasn't a fish I was familiar with until I was probably in my early 20's. I grew up in the 70's, in a small New England town, there just wasn't a lot of crossover food from other areas... ethnic aisle in the grocery store?? Huh, what do you mean ethnic? The only ethnic food around came from a few small grocers who specialized in Portuguese, Greek or Italian food (the 3 major ethnic populations in the area back then), and you had to go to the "city" to get that. And, even though salmon isn't considered to be associated with any particular ethnic group, it certainly wasn't a New England fish. I imagine Maine lobster didn't make too many appearance on the northwest coast of the US back in those days either. Ok, I'm rambling (isn't that the first sign of getting old??).

Regardless of all of the above, salmon didn't make it's way into my life until I moved to Florida in the early 90's. I remember my mother making it for dinner one night and I instantly fell in love with the moist, flaky texture, and the rich flavor that seemed to be able to handle even the strongest flavor enhancements without losing it's character. Yes, salmon and I had a definite future together.

***Flash Forward***

This is now my go to fish. It's wonderful baked, broiled, fried, in salads, and it even holds its own on the grill. The big kicker, though, is that my kids love it... and it's actually GOOD for them (shh... no telling!). Anyway, here's my favorite way to prepare it, this works well on the grill as well... just set the fish on a piece of foil with the sides and ends rolled up so the "sauce" doesn't drip into the fire.

1 salmon filet (for the 5 of us I buy a 1.5lb filet)
1/4 soy sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup white wine
salt, onion salt, garlic salt, black pepper
butter

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Lightly rinse the salmon filet to remove any scales from the flesh of the fish and then place in a ziploc bag.

Mix together the soy sauce, lemon juice and white wine, pour half into the ziploc bag with the salmon. Let this marinate for 20 minutes.

Place salmon filet in a glass baking dish with the marinade from the bag. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the fish is almost done. Pour the remaining marinade over the fish and dot the top with pats of butter (for 1.5 lbs I use about 3 Tbs of butter). Continue baking until the fish flakes easily with a fork in the center of the thickest part of the filet (usually another 5-10 minutes, depending on how thick the piece of fish is).

To serve, cut the salmon into serving size pieces and spoon a little of the pan juices over the fish.