Air-Fryer Garlic-Lemon Salmon

Ingredients

• 4, about 150 g each and 2.5 cm at the thickest point Salmon fillets, skin on, fresh or fully thawedFish allergen. Thickness sets the timing, not weight: a thin tail piece is done several minutes before a centre cut. Thaw frozen fillets in the fridge overnight rather than on the counter, and pour the liquid away.
• 4 cloves, finely grated or crushed GarlicGrated garlic belongs in the paste and on the fish. Loose garlic in the basket scorches in the airflow and turns bitter long before the salmon is ready.
• 2 tablespoons Olive oil, or softened unsalted butterButter browns faster and tastes richer. If you use it, the dish contains milk, and whatever you write on the label at the table has to say so.
• 2 Unwaxed lemonsThe zest of one goes into the paste before cooking. The other is halved and squeezed over after cooking, which is where the fresh lemon flavour actually comes from.
• 1 teaspoon salt, pepper to taste Salt and black pepper
• a small handful, optional Flat-leaf parsley, choppedOptional, and it introduces no allergen of its own. Dill or chives do the same job.

Yield: Four fillets, cooked in 2 batches in a small basket. Serves four as a main course, or six to eight as one dish on a shared table alongside others. About 35 minutes from fridge to packed container. To make more, add batches rather than fillets: every extra 2 fillets is another cycle of 9 to 13 minutes, and a fuller basket is not a shortcut.

Method

1. Unwrap the salmon and check that it is fresh or fully thawed. A part-frozen fillet heats unevenly, and its outside is finished long before its middle. Pat every piece dry. The timings below assume fillets of about 2.5 cm at the thickest point; thinner tail pieces are ready sooner and want checking earlier.
2. Make the paste. Grate the 4 garlic cloves into the 2 tablespoons of oil or softened butter, add the zest of 1 lemon, the salt and the pepper, and stir it thick. Spread it over the flesh side of each fillet. Keep the garlic in the paste and on the fish rather than scattering it in the basket, where the airflow burns it.
3. Do not marinate the fish in lemon juice. Acid firms and whitens the surface without heating anything, so a fillet that has sat in juice looks further along than it is, and a long soak leaves the outside chalky. The zest goes on now; the juice waits until the fish is off the heat.
4. Set the air fryer to 190°C, preheating only if your appliance manual says your model needs it. Lay the fillets skin down in a single layer with a gap between them. Most small baskets hold 2 fillets and not 4, so cook the rest as a second batch: crowded fish steams instead of roasting and heats unevenly, which is a safety problem and not only a texture one.
5. Cook for 9 to 13 minutes. Treat that as a starting point rather than a setting — thickness, your model and how full the basket is all move it. Then measure: slide a probe thermometer into the thickest part of a fillet, held clear of the basket and any metal, and look for 63°C at the centre. That is the figure these notes are written to, and because this record cites no source you should confirm it against the guidance your own food-safety authority publishes. Elapsed time and colour are not doneness tests; salmon turns opaque before it is up to temperature. If it reads low, give it 2 more minutes and measure again, and measure each batch on its own.
6. Off the heat, squeeze the halved second lemon over the fillets and scatter the parsley. The skin usually stays behind in the basket: lift it out while it is still warm and the basket needs nothing more than hot water. Keep the first batch covered and warm while the second cooks, rather than letting it stand out while you finish.
7. Pack it the moment it is done. Anything not leaving with you straight away goes into the fridge promptly rather than cooling on the counter. Carry it either cold — in an insulated cooler with ice packs, at 5°C or below — or hot, in a preheated insulated container held at 60°C or above. A covered tray on the back seat is neither of those things.
8. Count the time on the table, because the count is cumulative and it does not reset when the dish goes back into the cooler. Add up every stretch the salmon spends between 5°C and 60°C — the drive, the wait, the meal itself. Under 2 hours in total: refrigerate it again or serve it immediately. Between 2 and 4 hours: serve it immediately and do not put it back in the fridge. Over 4 hours: throw it out.