Buttered salmon with red onion and dill

I would eat bagels with gravlax and cream cheese for every meal if I could, but as I can’t, I have this salmon recipe, which hits a lot of the same notes. There’s plenty of red onion, briny capers and fresh dill. The sesame seeds are optional, but I think they add an even more toasty dimension to the brown butter sauce. There’s a lot going on here flavour-wise, so I recommend letting this dish be the loudest thing on the table and simply serving it with a herby salad, steamed broccoli and maybe garlic bread.

SERVES 4-6

1 lemon

1kg salmon fillet, skin

on or skinless

Salt

Freshly ground

black pepper

90g unsalted butter

60ml olive oil, plus extra

for drizzling

½ small red onion, sliced

into very thin rings

2tbsp brined capers, drained 1 large handful dill sprigs 2tbsp toasted sesame seeds

(optional)

1 Preheat the oven to 160°C/140°C fan/gas mark 3. Thinly slice half the lemon and remove any seeds; save the other half for juicing. Place the salmon on a baking tray or in a large baking dish and season with the salt and freshly ground pepper.

2 Heat the butter in a medium frying pan over a medium-high heat. Cook, occasionally swirling, until the butter has started to brown. Add the olive oil, sliced lemon and half the onion. Season with salt and pepper and cook, tossing occasionally, until the lemon and onion have started to brown. You’re looking for them to be fairly crisp, rather than softened and caramelised. Add the capers.

3 Pour the browned butter and lemon mixture over the salmon. Place in the oven and roast until just cooked through, for roughly 12-15min. Remove from the oven and transfer to a serving dish.

4 Meanwhile, toss together the dill sprigs and sesame seeds, if using, in a mediumsized bowl. Season with salt, pepper and the juice from the remaining lemon half. Scatter the mixture on top of the baked salmon, along with the remaining sliced onion.