Baked Salmon With a Walnut Crust

Instructions

1. First, preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius, then make the marinade for the salmon so that the fillets can absorb as much of it as possible whilst you prep the rest of the meal! Rub each fillet with the dill and squeeze on some lemon juice on each, then set aside whilst you make your marinade.
2. Mix the English mustard, the sweet chilli, the garlic cloves and the salt and pepper in a small bowl or glass. We like to put each fillet in a zip-lock bag with the sliced mushrooms so that we can pour the marinade in, seal the bag, and shake, to ensure that each fillet is well covered, but placing the fillets on a dish and drizzling the marinade onto each will work just as well, so choose to do it how you like! Once each fillet is well covered, set it aside whilst you prep your vegetables.
3. Peel the courgettes into ribbons, or cut thin and wide strips with the side of a sharp knife (we did a bit of a mixture for different levels of thickness), and place into a medium-large mixing bowl.
4. Meanwhile, take a handful of frozen peas and put them in a bowl with a little bit of water to cover them so that they defrost (if using fresh, peel and add to the courgette mixture).
5. Chop your onion into strips and crush your garlic and chop finely, then add both of these to the mixing bowl. Next, squeeze on the juice of the other half of the lemon, sprinkle on some salt and pepper and drizzle on some oil, then mix all of this with your hands to make sure each ribbon or strip is evenly covered.
6. Now you are ready to make your walnut crust, which you do by crushing the walnuts with a pestle and mortar and adding a small pinch of salt and pepper. Sprinkle in your chopped coriander, your crushed and finely chopped clove of garlic and add a little water at a time until it is at a consistency that you’re happy with. The water helps the walnut and coriander form a paste, which is more likely to stick onto the salmon, but there is no need to make it too watery or mushy!
7. Spread the paste onto each salmon fillet, and then lay each one onto individual pieces of foil, tipping the mushrooms on top as well. Place two cherry tomatoes onto each piece of foil, then wrap each parcel up to cover all ingredients.
8. Place each into the oven and bake for 8 to 10 minutes (depending on the strength of your oven and how well done you like your salmon; 8 minutes for us meant that the fish was fresh and less cooked in the middle, but if you like it well done you may want to leave it for slightly longer since it is being baked in foil and is topped with a crust).
9. Turn on your griddle pan to heat up, and once it is really hot, spray lightly with oil and spread the veg evenly, turning every 30 seconds or so.
10. Once the vegetables are cooked and slightly crisp, put them back into the mixing bowl, tip in your peas, crumble in some feta, shake the bowl, and mix thoroughly.
11. The beauty of this dish is that the vegetable mixture can be served as a warming base to the fish or as a cold salad. We enjoyed ours warm and split the mixture onto each plate, place the salmon fillet, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes onto each once they were cooked.