Easy Baked Salmon

It's been more than a month since I last posted anything here! Gosh. How time flies! I just returned a week ago from my 6 days 5 nights Phuket, Thailand trip, and I must say, it was so amazingly fun. The weather was perfect, no rain at all despite the fact that it's monsoon season over there; and the activities that X and I did there were amazingly memorable. Oh, and let's not forget the food eh? I was so inspired by Thai cuisine that I wanted to go for Thai cooking classes but unfortunately all slots were booked up! So I guess I will have to wait until the next time I go Thailand again! (:

This easy baked salmon recipe is from a cookbook that I bought when I was 14. The cookbook was a compilation of recipes contributed by my secondary school teachers, students and even the alumni members. It was published to celebrate my school's 70th "birthday", and though I bought it like... many years ago, I've never tried any recipe in it before. Too many recipes, too little time! Yesterday, while going through all the recipes I've collected over the years, I decided to make this because I love salmon and the recipe looks ridiculously easy, and it indeed is easy and extremely fast to prepare. And the best part of the whole cooking process is that there is minimum clean-up - perfect for lazy people like me.

This salmon requires very few ingredients, just the fish, pepper, salt, oil, lemon and herbs. Herbs are definitely optional and you can substitute salmon with any other fish you like. Some people always feel that lemon is a must for seafood, but for such a simple dish like this, I think that the lemon can also be omitted (as long as you are using fresh fish!). Baked for only about 15 to 20 minutes, this dish is delicious, healthy and comforting. Boy, I'm like... salivating while typing about it! =/

I'm gonna give you the recipe before I become selfish and wanna keep it all to myself!

Easy Baked Salmon (serves 1)

If salmon is not available, use any other fresh fish fillet (I'll try not to use frozen ones). As for the herbs, the original recipe calls for dry herb mix but of course I wouldn't have such herb mixture lying around so I used dill instead. However I can't really taste the dill, I probably used too little. =/ But it's definitely okay to just use salt and black pepper. You can also use butter instead of olive oil; and lemon can be omitted. (:

1 salmon fillet (about 200 grams, depending on how much you want to eat)
Olive oil
Salt
Ground black pepper
Herbs (optional)
Half a lemon (optional)

Preheat the oven to 230 degrees Celsius. Lie a baking sheet with aluminium foil, folding the edges to create a little "box" to hold all the liquid in. Wash the salmon fillet and pat dry with paper towel.

Drizzle olive oil on one side of the salmon fillet then season with salt, ground black pepper and herbs if using. Squeeze a little lemon juice over the fillet, if using. Repeat on the other side of the salmon fillet.

Lower the oven temperature to 200 degrees Celsius and bake the salmon, skin-side up for 15 to 20 minutes, until the salmon is cooked through. If you want a crispy skin, place the salmon under the broiler for a couple of minutes (watch the salmon!).

Serve immediately! (:

Bon Appétit!