I know the taste of dill sauce since I was little girl. I still remember intense smell of dill when my Mom was cutting it for the sauce. I prepare it quite often today, usually with pasta and salmon. Very simple and delicious combination. For the sauce I prepare classic béchamel without using a scale (that is why I wrote approximately in grams for flour, butter and milk). And I like to season salmon with coarse salt, add some cherry tomatoes and garlic in oven to make salmon taste like a real fish…ok, I am not going to say one single more….here it is…the smell of my childhood…

Dill sauce

Butter (about 150g)

Flour (about 150g)

Milk as needed (about 1,5 liter)

Salt, pepper and nutmeg

Dill, fresh, finely chopped

Lemon

Salmon fillet

2 salmon fillets

Cherry tomatoes, different colors

Coarse salt with spices (rosemary, thyme)

Pepper

Butter and olive oil

Dill and parsley (fresh), few cloves of garlic

For dill sauce prepare classic Bechamel sauce – melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, until the paste cooks and bubbles a bit, but don’t let it brown.

Add milk (not cold from fridge, room temperature or warm it up before), continuing to stir as the sauce thickens. Bring it to a boil. Add salt, nutmeg and pepper to taste, lower the heat, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes more. Remove from the heat and pour it through fine sieve in order to avoid clumps. Add fresh, finely chopped dill and season with lemon juice.

To cool this sauce for later use, cover it with wax paper or pour a film of milk over it to prevent a skin from forming.

Salmon fillet

Put some butter on the baking paper and season with coarse salt with spices, than place salmon fillets on it. Season salmon fillets with salt, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil. Put some cherry tomatoes and crushed garlic cloves with skin, parsley, dill and slice of lemon. Bake in preheated oven on 180 C, 10-12 minutes (depends on oven).

-Croatian version-

Umak od kopra prati me od najranijeg djetinjstva. I tada mi je bio najdraži umak, sjećam se tog intenzivnog mirisa kopra koji se osjetio u kuhinji dok ga je mama strpljivo sitno rezala za umak. I danas ga rado pripremam, najčešće uz tjesteninu i file lososa. Vrlo brza i jednostavna kombinacija. Za umak pripremam klasični bešamel bez vaganja namirnica (zato sam navela otprilike količine za maslac, brašno i mlijeko), a losos volim začiniti krupnom soli sa začinima i dodati nekoliko mini rajčica i češnjak u pećnicu da se okusi sjedine s lososom….da ne duljim…mirisni recept moga djetinjstva….

Kopar umak

Maslac (oko 150g)

Brašno (oko 150g)

Mlijeko po potrebi (više od 1 litre)

Sol, papar i muškatni oraščić

Svježi kopar

Limun

Za losos file

2 losos filea

Nekoliko mini rajčica raznih boja

Krupna sol sa začinima

Papar

Maslac i maslinovo ulje

Svježi kopar i peršin, nekoliko češnja češnjaka

Za kopar umak pripremiti klasičan bešamel umak – od maslaca i brašna napraviti gustu svijetlu masu na umjerenoj vatri te dodavati mlijeko paralelno miješajući pjenjačom da se ne stvaraju grudice.

Dodavati toliko mlijeka dok ne dobijete srednje gustu smjesu, začiniti sa soli, bijelim sitno mljevenim paprom i muškatnim oraščićem. Konstantno miješati da se ne stvore grudice te cijelu smjesu procijediti kroz sitno cjedilo. Vratiti na laganu vatru i dodati limunov sok. Po potrebi začiniti sa soli, paprom i muškatnim oraščićem. Maknuti s vatre i dodati svježe rezani kopar po okusu.

File lososa

Na papir za pečenje staviti malo maslaca i posuti ga s malo krupne soli sa začinima. Na maslac staviti file lososa, premazati s limunovim sokom, posuti sa soli i paprom, preliti s malo maslinovog ulja, sa strane staviti nekoliko češnja češnjaka s korom koji ste lagano stisnuli rukom, nekoliko mini rajčica, svježi peršin i kopar te krišku limuna. Peći na 180 C do 8 minuta (ovisno o pećnici).