We're gonna cook a whole fish, in salt. It's a bonkers old-school method, you can
do it at home and also great to cook for a lot of people, let's do it. This dish is
a showstopper, your friends and family are gonna love these fresh and bright
flavours. A 5 kilo whopper like this will feed about 20 people. I bought a whole
load of rock salt, get yourself like 4 or 5 kilos or enough to cover up the fish
you're gonna cook. So first up, a little water so just a couple of eggs just
cracked in like that, just scrunch it up. Just a little egg is gonna allow the
salt to kind of really go firm like a shell. The salt will completely encase
the fish sealing all the juices inside. Let's talk about our fish, I'm gonna cook
a nice big one, a salmon. Just look at that, the gills are super red, the eyes
look at those you know it's fresh. Leave the scales on for cooking in salt always
I had it gutted, we do not want the salt to go into this cavity. So we're gonna
take any fresh herb we can get our hands on, so I've got fennel here just rip it up
I've got some marjoram, some parsley, some chives, then grab some lemon that's just
gonna create a little humidity in the air it's that simple.
Get yourself a nice big tray, create a little base for the fish to go in, this
is a big old boy, but I'm gonna go at an angle, corner-to-corner then simply go
over the top with the salt. You want about 2 centimeters of salt under the fish
and over and around the fish because when you kind of heat up that salt it's
just gonna bake hard, it kind of creates like a kind of cocoon, a cave and then
you take it out of the oven it still carries on cooking in the salt
because this is an oven, this will be an oven. So when you look
inside that you're gonna have the most silky, melt in your mouth, juicy fish ever
and you're gonna think I'm mad but when you see what it looks like when it's
cooked everything's gonna change. Let's whack it in the oven 40 minutes and we'll
have a look, bye bye, fish. While that cooks at 200 degrees Celsius, I'm gonna make
the ultimate accompaniment-, let's make proper mayonnaise. I'm gonna go in with one
egg yolk. We're gonna start whisking this up, I'm gonna go in with one teaspoon of
mustard. You want to add about half a pint of oil, if you add it too quick it
will split, trust me. After the mild oil, start to add
some good punchy extra-virgin olive oil
to perk it up, and whatever you do, keep whisking. When you start doing this
you will go through the threshold of pain then you can hold it differently
and go for more of a shoulder whisk, right, and you'll get naked again and
then you go for more, a little wrist action. Shoulder, wrist. Now squeeze in some
lemon juice and a splash of good quality vinegar, and then season to taste. But
there's a secret bit, I've got a little trick to make this Mayo stand out from
the crowd- basil. What I want to do is get the
essence of basil, okay. So I'm just gonna rip it up, a good pinch of salt and bash
it up. I'll put a little bit of oil in there and then I need to sieve all those
bits out, squeeze all the goodness out of it. Normally I'm a bit lazy- bash it up
smash it up, big flavour get it in, I don't mind all that, pork chop, but we
ain't in that place today. I just did an impression of myself, and it was bang on
Okay back to this mayonnaise and look at the change of colour
homemade basil Mayo, nice, now back to the fish. It's had 40 minutes so test it with
a knife. Hold it up to your lip, if it's kind of warm and I mean sort of like cup
of tea out for 10 minutes sort of warm, beautiful, you don't want it hot because
that means you've overcooked it. Then leave the fish to continue gently
cooking in its own salt cave for another 30 minutes, time for a killer salsa!
You've guessed it, I know, chilli. The punchy kick of the chilli will work
beautifully with the fresh mint, kind of almost equal quantities, yin and
yang. Hit it with vinegar and olive oil and season, have a little taste, HOO-HOO
Yeah! Now when it comes to serving up, this meal really makes an entrance
What's for dinner? Fish in salt. Sorry what? Yeah fish in
salt, and you just go and everyone's like, what's going on? And then you just start
dismantling this cocoon and everyone's freaked out and then you start peeling
back the skin and everyone's like ahh and then you just start portioning up and
everyone's like ooo, anyway, moving on. The herbs here have stopped any salt getting
inside and then just peel that skin, absolutely amazing, and just look at that
by cooking it in the salt, all the moisture has been sealed inside. It
really is the juiciest fish you'll ever have, absolutely gorgeous
Basil Mayo, taking it to the next level and then our chilli oil. Every party's got
to have someone that's a little bit uncouth
you know what I mean, a few dirty jokes, and this is our friend here. You don't want
him everywhere, but just on a little corner of the table next to your
mother-in-law is good. And that my friends, is fish cooked in salt, with a
badass ninja mayo!