Cooking for Pleasure: Baked salmon or halibut in garlic mayonnaise

Easy and delicious way to cook fish

The finished baked salmon. (Photo by Patty Schied)

By Patty Schied

This is an easy and delicious way to cook fish. I make it this way frequently, especially when I want a quick dinner. With the spring and summer fishing season upon us, it can sometimes be difficult to come up with different ways of cooking fish that are both easy to prepare and tasty.  

The mayonnaise topping keeps the fish very moist, besides adding a lovely garlic flavor. The only tricky part of this recipe is timing. A thin piece of fish may take only eight to ten minutes.  My eight-ounce king salmon filet took 15 minutes. Although I have only tried this recipe with halibut and salmon, go ahead and try it with the fish of your choice.

Ingredients for baked salmon in garlic mayonnaise. (Photo by Patty Schied)

Ingredients for two people:

• 2 six-to-eight-ounce filets of fish (enough for two servings)

• 1 clove of garlic, finely minced

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• ¼ cup mayonnaise

• Salt and pepper

• Breadcrumbs (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450. Place fish filets skin side down in a foil or parchment paper-lined baking dish.

Season with salt and pepper. Mix the mayonnaise, garlic and oil.  Spread mixture over the fish. Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top, if desired.

Bake in a preheated oven. After 10 minutes, check for doneness. If it still seems undercooked, leave it in the oven for five minutes more, then check again.

• Patty Schied is a longtime Juneau resident who studied at the Cordon Bleu in London and has written a cookbook. Cooking for Pleasure appears every other week in the Juneau Independent's features. She welcomes questions about her column at patschied@yahoo.com.

The spread garlic mayonnaise mixture on salmon. (Photo by Patty Schied)