Salmon is a simple dish that tastes good no matter what you do to it.

This Make Ahead Salmon Escabeche recipe is from the Wall Street Journal, which features a different chef and his or her favorite recipes every few weeks.

This dish entails a few steps but mostly it’s hands off once you’ve made a rub–just four ingredients–and a vinegar marinade.

It’s totally worth it and you’ll love the flavor. 

Optional: The chef, and forgive me, I can’t remember his name or my WSJ password to find it, served this on a good bread with a lemon garlic mayo. I urge you to do the same. 

The sauce and the bread take an already delish dish and really make it sing. 

Make-Ahead Salmon Escabeche

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What You Need for Make Ahead Salmon

• One pound wild salmon fillets
• Red onion
• Jalapeno
• Rice wine vinegar
• Spices

I made this salmon dish for the first time on Christmas Day.

The menfolk devoured it so I made it again a few weeks later.

I’ve been asked to keep it in the meal rotation.

I debated sharing the recipe with you, dearest reader, because I like to focus on sweets and cocktails.

But, after hearing a coworker’s dilemma, I thought I should post it in case you ever find yourself in a similar situation.

Here’s the story: 

Her husband had invited his boss for dinner. And for a Friday night when she’d be working all day! She wanted to serve a tasty, impressive looking dish but she also didn’t want to spend half the night preparing it OR take the day off to pull the dinner together. 

So I sent her this Make Ahead Salmon recipe.

How to Make This Salmon Escabeche Dish in Advance

Make the rub and the vinegary marinade the night before.

Thaw the salmon, use wild if you can, and sprinkle the rub on the flesh (pink) side of the fish. 

Put the salmon in a resealable bag or glass dish with tight fitting lid and put in the fridge.

Let it sit for a few minutes if baking that day, otherwise package and refrigerate. You can do this the night before you’re going to serve.

On serving day, bake salmon in the oven at 350 for ten minutes.

Once the salmon is done baking, pour the marinade over the top of the salmon and refrigerate and place in the fridge.

Let the fish marinade at least an hour. Part of beauty of this dish is you can let the salmon marinade for several hours if need be. It only gets better with time.

Bring salmon to room temperature once you’re ready to serve. I would say pull it out of the refrigerator 3o minutes before you want to serve it.   

What to Serve with Escabeche?

I don’t think you can go wrong with a green salad and roasted potatoes. 

Couscous is another good choice for escabeche. Or steamed broccoli.

Salmon is a strong, rich fish and this particular escabeche recipe packs a lot of flavor between the rub of cumin and coriander and the red onion and the jalapeno.

So serve a side dish that’s going to take a back seat to the main event. 

What I haven’t shown you in these photos is a lemon garlic mayo toast that you can top with the salmon escabeche.

My teenager really liked scooping the salmon escabeche onto wheat thins. I think he may have have used saltines as a scoop too.

Husband ate the salmon as is.

But me, as a carboholic, was partial to the lemon garlic mayo bread method. 🤣

Make Ahead Salmon Escabeche

Yield: Four main course servings or 4 to 6 appetizer servings

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Additional Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Wild salmon, rubbed with spices, including cumin, coriander and fennel, is baked before getting bathed in a marinade of rice wine vinegar, oil, red onion and jalapeno. Perfect for a main course or an appetizer. Serve with good toasted bread or crackers.

Print

Ingredients

• ½ tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• ½ tsp fennel seed
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 pound of wild salmon (16 ounces) (I get packages from freezer section at fish market labeled “Keto salmon,” which are already portioned.
• Marinade
• 1 small red onion or half of a large onion, sliced thinly
• 1 jalapeno chile, sliced thinly
• ½ cup canola oil or olive oil
• ¼ cup rice wine vinegar (original recipe uses red wine vinegar, which I don’t care for so I use white wine or rice wine vinegar, use what you have, your preference)
• 1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Make Ahead Salmon Escabeche

Make the rub

In a small bowl combine:

½ tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp fennel seed

1 tsp salt

Stir until combined.

1 pound of wild salmon (I get packages from freezer section at fish market labeled “Keto salmon,” which are already portioned.

Marinade

1 small red onion or half of a large onion, sliced thinly

1 jalapeno chile, sliced thinly

1/4 cup canola oil or olive oil

¼ cup rice wine vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

1 loaf of ciabatta sliced (unless you’re on keto, ha ha)

Directions:

Rub the flesh of the salmon with the spice mixture, cover and put in fridge for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Bake salmon for 12 to 15 minutes

While fish is baking, make marinade.

Put onion, jalapeno, canola oil, vinegar and salt in a bowl and stir. 

Pour onion/jalapeno mixture over warm fish once removed from oven.

Let sit for 15 minutes at room temperature before moving to fridge. 

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Notes

The original recipe uses red wine vinegar, which I don’t care for so I use white wine or rice wine vinegar, use what you have, your preference.

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Nutrition Information:

Yield: 4 Serving Size: 4 ounces
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 331Total Fat: 23gSaturated Fat: 1.4gUnsaturated Fat: 7.8gCholesterol: 80.5mgSodium: 63.5mgFiber: 0gSugar: 0gProtein: 26g

Nutrition information is not always accurate.

More Fish Recipes

Spicy Fish Sandwiches

Spicy Shrimp Nachos

Your turn:

What’s your favorite way to make salmon?

Make Ahead Salmon Escabeche