Baked salmon 'Tarator' style recipe

Created by Greg Malouf

15 comments

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Rating:

5/ 5 stars 73 Votes

Cuisine: Lebanese
Prep Time: 20 min(s)
Cook Time: 55 min(s)
Serves 10–12

This is one of the best dishes I’ve eaten in my life and is now our show-off dinner party and Christmas lunch dish. The combination of perfectly cooked fish, a tahini and yoghurt dressing, freshly chopped herbs and walnuts, and a hint of chilli is fresh and delicious. The dish is served at room temperature, so you can cook the salmon up to four hours in advance.

Ingredients

Dressing
1 garlic clove
1 tsp sea salt
400 g natural yoghurt
100 ml tahini
lemon juice

1 Tasmanian salmon (4–4.5 kg)
sea salt and freshly ground white pepper
170 ml extra-virgin olive oil
150 g walnuts
juice of 1–2 lemons
1 medium red onion, finely diced
3 long red chillies, seeded and finely diced
2 cups coriander leaves, chopped
½ cup mint leaves, shredded
20 g sumac

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Preparation

To make the dressing, place the garlic and salt in a mortar and crush well. Stir the garlic, yoghurt and tahini together until it becomes a thick paste. Thin slightly with lemon juice (it should be the consistency of pure cream). Taste for salt and refrigerate.

Preheat the oven to 150°C. Place the salmon on a large sheet of baking paper. Season all over with salt and pepper and drizzle with 2 ½ tablespoons of the oil. Wrap the salmon in the paper, place on a tray and bake in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes. Gently turn the salmon over and cook for a further 25 minutes, by which time it should be medium–rare. Remove from the oven and open the paper to stop the salmon cooking further. Leave to cool to room temperature.

Turn the oven up to 200°C and roast the walnuts for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and rub briskly in a clean tea towel to remove as much of their skin as possible. Chop finely and set aside.

Close to serving time, use a sharp knife to cut through the skin along the back of the salmon from head to tail. Peel away the skin from one side. Scrape away the thin layer of grey flesh (the blood line) to expose the pink flesh underneath. Carefully transfer the salmon to a large serving plate. Brush ½ cup of the yoghurt dressing over the top of the salmon.

In a bowl, whisk the remaining oil with the lemon juice, salt and pepper. Add the onion and chilli and whisk lightly. Add the chopped walnuts, herbs and sumac. Spoon the salad over the salmon, covering it as neatly as possible.

Use a metal spoon to ‘cut’ portions of the salmon and salad. Serve with the remaining dressing.

SBS cook’s notes
Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55–60 g, unless specified.

If you enjoyed this Baked salmon 'Tarator' style recipe then browse more Lebanese recipes, seafood recipes, baking recipes and our most popular hainanese chicken rice recipe.

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Comments (15)

Previous Page 1 | 2 Next

16 Feb 2013 04:50 AEST

Mary-Rose

Orange

Delish

I cooked this twice over the Christmas holidays and everyone just loved it. I only had salmon fillets and it still worked out well. I loved preparing it and it looked stunning served on the plate. Definitely a crowd pleaser.

Agree(0 people agree)

Disagree(1 people disagree)

14 Dec 2012 02:33 AEST

michelle

ocean grove

fantastic

I did this recipe for a christmas lunch last week and it was a huge success instead of a whole fish I used 3 filletts, it fed 22 beautifully

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31 Mar 2012 09:56 AEST

kell

palm beach

salads

what to serve this with? any salad/vege suggestions that work well???

Agree(5 people agree)

Disagree(2 people disagree)

17 Feb 2011 11:31 AEST

Peter

Surrey Hills

Fantastic

I recommend making almost double the salad and dressing to use on the "bottom" half.It was an absolute hit at Christmas, one 4.5 kg salmon easily did 22 people for an entree with heaps left over (but not for long). A friend has also done this with schnapper and it worked out beautifully.

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Disagree(1 people disagree)

30 Nov 2010 12:19 AEST

Annie

Surrey Hills

Cutting into two halves

I am interested in some people's comments re boning and halving the salmon. I've made this recipe a few times and always successfully, but there is the downside of having no topping on the underside of the fish. When those of you who've halved the fish bake it, so you bake it and top it as two or put the two halves back together and treat as a whole fish again? Thanks in advance.

Agree(2 people agree)

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18 Jan 2010 05:08 AEST

Jess

Richmond

Amazing

This recipe is fantastic! If I don't want to cook a whole fish I have also made it with fillets of salmon when it is just my husband and I. Great recipe! Highly recommend!

Agree(3 people agree)

Disagree(0 people disagree)

23 Dec 2009 08:33 AEST

Phil

Redfern

As good as it looks!

I did this on Xmas Day last year and it was just awesome - I just wish I had a huge gathering as there's a lot of food in the whole salmon. It looks impressive and it tastes awesome - doing it again for Xmas Day this year!

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30 Oct 2009 07:18 AEST

paul

marrickville

best eva

cooking it right now, cant wait, my wives also love it

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