Salmon with a Lemon Dill Crab Topping

This Easter I decided to mix things up a little bit and serve salmon instead of ham.  I love ham and all but my volunteer-firefighting fiancee had a bad experience several years ago when he responded to a barn fire at a pig farm and so now he pretty much avoids ham like the plague.  Since this was to be our first time hosting a family holiday meal since we got engaged, not to mention the first big meal at our new place I wanted to come up with something really special, and thus salmon with a lemon dill crab topping was born.  As an added bonus this dish turned out to be super easy!

Ingredients

8 salmon fillets

1 package imitation crab meat, flake style

1 cup mayo

1/4 cup lemon juice

3 tbsp dill

salt and pepper

3/4 cup unseasoned breadcrumbs

To start the topping I cut the crab meat up into small pieces.  Since it usually comes very tightly packed it is really easy to basically dice it.  Mix this with the mayo, lemon juice, dill, salt and pepper.  This can be made a day ahead of time and kept in the fridge, which is a good idea if you have time for this because it helps the flavors come together.

When you're ready to cook preheat your oven to 350 and get out a cookie sheet.  If you have a silicon cookie sheet liner or some parchment paper now would be a good time to make use of it.  Lay out the salmon fillets on the cookie sheet next to each other so that there is no space between the fish.  This increases the cooking time a little bit but you can get better coverage with the topping so I think it's worth it.

Next use the spatula to spread the lemon dill crab topping over the salmon, getting as close to the edges as possible.  Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the top and you're ready for the oven.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, and then put the fish under the broiler for an additional 5 minutes to crisp up the breadcrumbs and give them a nice golden brown color.  Recipe serves 8.

So there you have it, a great recipe for salmon on Easter.  Did anybody else eat something other than ham for dinner?