Favourite way to cook fish..... Kilos of salt!!

[Dupont666]

Take one fish, whatever you like... salmon is good but uses a lot of salt.

Preheat oven to 475F

Rinse the fish in cold water and dry with paper towels. Stuff its tummy with lemon slices and herbs. The main purpose of the herbs is to keep the salt out of the fish, so be generous with your herbs and make sure they stick out of the fish.

Encrusting the fish in salt: Line a 2" deep baking dish with aluminum foil. Pour enough salt to make a layer 3/4" deep (you don't have to cover the entire baking dish, just the part where the fish will be. Sprinkle salt lightly with water. Place the fish on top and pour more salt on top of the fish to form a top 3/4" layer (leave head and tail uncovered). Push aluminum foil to hug the fish and salt. This will prevent the salt from spreading all over the baking dish. Splash the top salt layer lightly with water to help salt form a crust when it bakes.

Baking: Bake in preheated 450F oven 10 minutes per pound of fish, plus an additional 7 minutes. Let the fish rest 15 minutes before removing salt. The fish will continue cooking slowly even after it's out of the oven.

Removing fish from salt: Crack the salt crust gently with a knife. Remove the top layer of salt. Gently pick up the fish using your hand and a spatula, and move it to a plate. It is very important not to tear the skin or the salt will get to the flesh and make it salty. Remove the herbs and lemon. Brush off any salt remaining on the fish.

Deboning: Make a shallow incision at the tail (same direction as if cutting the tail off). Peel off the top skin pulling from tail to head. Run a fork along the back of the fish to loosen fillet and lift it off the bone onto a serving plate. Remove the backbone. Pick up the bottom fillet and place it on a serving plate skin side up. Peel off the skin.

Serve with melted garlic herb butter

Yum....

I sometimes prefer to move the whole things onto a large plate, crack the salty tomb at the table as if you get it right it removes the skin all in one go, eat one side then flip over and go again.... quite impressive!!

[Kneetrembler]

Majority of Spanish waiters use a 2 spoons instead of a fork to run along the bone as it doesn't tend to dig in and is easier to lift the fillets off with.

Also good with a Hollandaise Sauce and some new potatoes