A little over a year ago, I was asked to contribute monthly recipe for Southerly, a community magazine for the neighborhoods in the Croasdaile area of Durham, NC. It’s a sweet little magazine, with stories about local families and businesses and a recipe from yours truly. It’s been a fun addition to my recipe writing hobby, and I’ve learned quite a bit in the process.
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| Perfectly crispy on the outside and moist on the inside |
It may be November, but our January deadline is looming. So today, I put pen to paper and did a measurement test and photo session (i.e. open the shutters and pray for good light - photographing food is REALLY difficult!) of one of our favorite weekday dishes, oven roasted salmon in a cast iron skillet. I gussied it up a tad with a yogurt dill sauce. Perfect for our readers who want to stay true to their New Years resolutions, come 2019.
The best part of this little project was the tasting - this salmon is so moist, the skin so crispy and the dill sauce is down right relish. I can't wait to finish this blog post so I can enjoy the rest of it!
Here’s how you do it:
Cast Iron Skillet Salmon with Yogurt Dill Sauce
Ingredients:
For the fish
- 1 salmon portion for each person to be served - get the thick rosy pink salmon portions from Trader Joes or Whole Foods (not the thin dark orangey red ones)
- Olive oil (to coat both sides of each portion)
- Kosher salt (a good pinch per portion)
- Fresh cracked black pepper (about 6 grinds per portion)
Yogurt Dill Sauce
- 1 6 oz container of fat free strained plain Greek yogurt
- The zest and juice of a lemon
- 1TBS finely chopped fresh dill
- 1/8 tsp Kosher salt
- 1/8 tsp onion powder
- 10 grinds of black pepper
Method:
- Put a cast iron skillet large enough to fit the fish without crowding into a cold oven. Set the even to 450 degrees and turn it on.
- As the oven and skillet come up to temp, blot the fish dry with a paper towel and drizzle both sides with olive oil. Smear the oil around a tad and sprinkle the flesh side with a good pinch of salt and about 6 grinds of black pepper.
- Also use this time to whisk all of the ingredients for the yogurt dill sauce together in a small bowl and set it aside.
- When the oven comes to temp, put on two kitchen mitts and CAREFULLY take the skillet out and place it on the stove, with the gas burner* set to a medium high heat. Place the fish in the skillet, flesh side down. Set a timer for 4 minutes and let the fish sear. Do not touch or move it. Trust me, it won’t stick or burn.
- At the end of four minutes, use a metal spatula flip the fish so it’s skin side down and put the skillet back into the oven. Set the timer for 5 minutes. (Note: I wear a kitchen mitt on one left hand and hold the spatula in the other, to make sure I don’t touch the hot pan when turning the fish, and then put both mitts on to put the skillet in the oven)
- AT the end of 5 minutes, put those mitts back on and remove the skillet from the oven. Immediately move the fish to serving plates so it won’t continue to cook in the hot pan.
- Serve with the dill sauce and enjoy!
*This recipe has only been tested using a gas stove. Consult the manufacturer of your electric cooktop before placing a hot skillet on the glass surface, to ensure that it does not crack.
