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Roasted Salmon with Shallot Grapefruit Sauce

Roasted salmon fillets served with a shallot and grapefruit sauce.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Roasted Salmon with Shallot Grapefruit Sauce

Oven350°F
Timeabout 18 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

  2. Season the salmon with ¼ teaspoon salt, place in a baking dish and roast until cooked through, about 18 minutes.

  3. While the salmon is cooking, prepare the sauce.

Make the sauce

  1. Cut one of the grapefruits into sections by cutting off the top and bottom of the fruit, then standing it on one end, cut down the skin to remove the pith and peel. With a paring knife, remove each segment of fruit from its casing and cut the segments in half.

  2. Set the segment pieces aside.

  3. Juice the other grapefruit and set the juice aside.

  4. In a medium skillet, heat the oil over medium heat.

  5. Add the shallot and sauté until softened, about 2 minutes.

  6. Add the ginger, grapefruit juice, honey, and cayenne pepper and bring to simmer.

  7. Cook until the sauce is reduced by about half, about 10 minutes.

  8. Add lemon juice and season with salt to taste.

  9. Right before serving, toss the grapefruit pieces and basil into the sauce.

Serve

  1. Put the salmon onto a serving dish.

  2. Spoon sauce over the salmon and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

473Calories
22 gProtein
27 gFat
38 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Salmon100g cooked208
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Honey1 tbsp (21g)64
Grapefruit1/2 fruit (123g)52
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Shallot1 tbsp minced (10g)7
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Basil5 leaves fresh (2.5g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Grapefruit + lemontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together184 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Grapefruit + gingertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together38 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Salmon fillets
Cooked by dry oven heat to become firm and flaky while staying moist.
Grapefruit
Provides bright acidity and aroma, and fresh segments add juicy texture to the sauce.
Honey
Adds sweetness and helps the sauce reduce to a glossy, syrupy consistency.
Shallot
Softens into the sauce, adding a mild, savory onion-like depth.
Ginger
Adds warm, aromatic pungency that balances the sweetness of the honey.
Basil
Adds fresh, herbal aroma at the end so its flavor stays bright.

The step that matters

Reducing the sauce. Simmering the juice, honey and ginger concentrates flavor and thickens the sauce as water evaporates. Reducing too little leaves it thin and watery; reducing too far can make it sticky and overly sweet.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, grapefruit, olive, ginger, honey, pepper, lemon):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, grapefruit, olive, ginger, honey, pepper, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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