Salmon in a bag

Last week I cooked ling in a bag (and not salmon in a bag) as a ready to cook option from Woolworths.

Dedicated to Mondays because despite what the Boomtown Rats may sing I love Mondays because I have salmon on Mondays.

At Woolworths, you head to the meat and seafood counter and mention to the person serving that you’d like a piece of fish in an oven bag. You’re asked what type of fish and what type of flavoured butter you’d like. You could choose salmon, ling, snapper, barramundi, and other types of fish. The butters range from herb butter to lime and chilli butter with others in between.

While Coles doesn’t have a ready to cook option like Woolworths, it’s pretty easy to buy oven bags, flavoured butter, and a piece of fish.

That’s what I did for this recipe.

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I bought all the ingredients from Coles.

Yummy Lummy is not sponsored by anyone.

Recipe

Print

Baked salmon in a bag with creamy red and sugarloaf cabbage

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

15 mins

Faffing

5 mins

Total Time

30 mins

 

Coles’ baked salmon in a bag with creamy red and sugarloaf cabbage. A quick 15 minute meal for one for the busy person living alone.

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Australian

Keyword: Cabbage, Salmon

Servings: 1 Hungry Human Macrophage

Calories: 500 kcal

Author: Gary

Ingredients

• 1 fillet Salmon
• 1 tablespoon Almond meal or if you consume carbohydrates flour
• 4 discs Flavoured butter (thick)
• ½ cup Cream
• ¼ Red cabbage (shredded)
• ¼ Sugarloaf cabbage (shredded)

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 175 °C (350 °F). I have a fan forced oven. If you don’t you may need to ramp the temperature up a bit. (Hint: You really need to get to know your oven intimately).

Fish

1. Unwrap your piece of fish from the environmentally unfriendly plastic bag and put the fish onto a plate.
2. Rub some high vapour-point oil like Queensland nut oil over the surface of the fish.
3. Season all the surfaces of your piece of fish with some iodised salt and freshly cracked black pepper.
4. Open the plastic oven bag and add a tablespoon of almond meal which will absorb some of the melted butter and juices from the fish as it cooks. This helps avoid spilling melted butter when you open the bag but don’t worry, there’ll still be enough melted butter you can spoon out and add to the fish when it’s on the plate.
5. Put the oiled up seasoned fish into the bag and rest it on the almond meal.
6. Cut a couple of discs of flavoured butter and place them on the fish.
7. Seal the bag with the oven-proof tie.
   
8. Poke a few holes in the bag on the off chance there is enough expansion of gases in the bag that the pressure inside the bag exceeds the pressure outside the bag and results in an explosive event which creates a buttery fishy mess inside your oven which you’ll regret because butter will go rancid and fish will rot and you’ll never clean it well enough.
9. Put the salmon in a bag onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper (to keep the baking sheet cleaand then put it into the oven for 15 minutes.
10. Note you’ll be putting the cabbage in the oven at the same time too.

Cabbage

1. Shred the red cabbage and sugarloaf cabbage and mix in a mixing bowl.
2. Add a good splash of cream and mix the cream and cabbage.
3. If you want, you can season the cabbage with some iodised salt and freshly cracked black pepper.
4. Put the creamy cabbage into a baking dish and add a couple of discs of flavoured butter.
5. If you like, you can also add some shredded kale. I like to add in some green kale and red kale. If kale sprouts were available I’d add them too.
6. Put the creamy buttery cabbage into the oven along with the fish and cook for 15 minutes.

Plating up bit

1. At the end of 15 minutes remove the fish and vegetables from the oven.
2. Open the oven bag and allow the fish to rest for a minute.
3. Using a spatula lift the cabbage from the baking dish and put it onto a warm plate. In truth, I never warm a plate because that’s too wanky for someone who lives alone and cooks for one, but you know, if you’re trying to impress someone special in your life, warm the plates.
4. Use the same spatula to lift the fish and put it onto the plate. Again, if you were cooking this for someone special you may use a separate spatula so you don’t ‘contaminate’ the fish with the creamy buttery juices of the cabbage (and if you do what I do, the kale as well).
5. You can put the fish next to the cabbage or on top. It’s really up to you. Obviously if you’ve pretentiously warmed the plate, putting the fish next to the cabbage won’t result in the fish cooling down too quickly. If you’re still into stacking food, a fad that I assume has now gone out of style, you can put the fish on top. Do you like it on top or on the bottom?
   

Blogging bit

1. Shoot a photograph and a short video because Google now wants video on recipe cards.
2. Eat the meal.
3. Wash the dishes (hint, wash as you cook, it makes life easier).
4. Write the recipe.
5. Write the blog post.
6. Hit publish and hope this blog post gets shared on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Recipe Video

Recipe Notes

Disclaimer

I have no culinary training nor qualifications. This post is not intended to convey any health or medical advice. If you have any health concerns about anything you read, please contact your registered medical practitioner. The quantities are indicative. Feel free to vary the quantities to suit your taste. I deliberately do not calculate energy for dishes. I deliberately default to 500 Calories or 500,000 calories because I do not make these calculations.

Photographs

This is a gallery of photographs. Click on one image and then scroll through the photographs.

Questions and answers

What was better? Salmon or ling?

In my opinion, salmon will always have more flavour than ling and the texture of salmon is superior. I preferred the salmon in terms of flavour.

That said, the ling was cheaper and it tasted good being cooked in a bag with flavoured butters.

From a home economics perspective, I’ll eat ling in a bag more and more. Buying it at Woolworths has the convenience of buying fresh fish and having someone else put it into an oven bag along with the flavoured butters.

You’re eating a lot of cabbage and kale lately. What’s up with this?

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, my GP has told me to reduce my consumption of carbohydrates so I’m eschewing starch-laden vegetables, rice, noodles, pasta, and bread. Leafy ‘green’ vegetables are healthful and taste good.

Will you try other types of fish soon?

Yes. I’m going to try barramundi. There’s no way I’ll ever get fresh barramundi in Canberra so I need to flavour it given it will have been frozen and thawed a few times and for all I know it will not be Australian barramundi but some fish from somewhere in South East Asia or it may be farmed barramundi which never tastes as good as wild barramundi.

The best barramundi I’ve eaten was in Shady Camp Billabong. I was fishing with a guide and the guide had a gas hob and frypan in his tinny. He filleted the barramundi and then cooked it in butter and lemon juice. IT WAS BLOODY AMAZING.

If you ever get an opportunity, find a good guide in the Top End, go fishing, and eat barramundi they way it should be.

Salmon in a bag or barramundi in a bag?

If it was fresh barramundi never. But old barramundi, Ill let you know.

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Final thoughts

• What’s your favourite fish to eat? What do you think of salmon in a bag?
• Do you like leafy green vegetables?
• Do you know your oven intimately?

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— Gaz 🖖 (@garydlum) August 15, 2019