Can you do me a favour ....? Of course

A quick phone call from fish monger Pat O' Connnell which began with can you do me a favour and cook a whole salmon me going of course and then going will I dress it for you too .... Last time I may have dressed a salmon was probably around 1999 in collage it involved aspic and and mayonnaise and possibly an olive or two and tomato roses and the of course the cucumber but sure what's a day without a challenge

This beauty was delivered up to me 

After a bit of googling on temperatures times and lengthy discussions with Donal and Aishling I set about cooking it We decided to half bake half steam so I stuffed the belly with lemon lime garlic and dill then in a deep tray placed onion leek fennel and carrots and covered with water then placed a wire rack on top 

Next time I will place parchment under the salmon as it was a tough job to get it out covered sol the Salmon with a layer of parchment and then tin foil and placed in the oven at 180c for 45 minutes until 64c was met by the thermometer and let rest for 20 minutes 

We carefully took it out from the tray and placed on the serving platter removing the stuffing from the belly then the skin was removed and a little tidying up 

Instead of traditional methods of decorating the salmon I choose to use pickled strips of cucumber a caper for the eye and a mixture of herbs and watercress to dress the tray and some lemon to brighten it up all seemed to be happy with the result a fresh summer modern approach to the dressed salmon.