Panned Salmon

Usually, when I buy a nice piece of wild salmon, I either grill or poach. Occasionally, when I'm in the mood and the weather cooperates, I'll plank. But, for some curious reason, I had never tried simply frying salmon in butter.

The idea came to me when I had a taste of salmon confit when we went to Greystone with cousin Jan and her pal Judi. I had never even thought about making confit with salmon - this one was made with clarified butter. One of those memorable bites.

So, with the idea of buttery salmon in mind, I got out my trusty wide frying pan, melted a little pat gently into the bottom, added a few fingerling potatoes and started them cooking for perhaps 10 minutes before sliding in a nice fillet of wild salmon, skin side down. The fish cooked for perhaps 5 minutes before I flipped it; had I been in the mood for crispy-skinned salmon, I could have left it on that side longer. Because I wanted just the fish itself this time, I flipped it after those few minutes and removed the now-loosened skin along with the dark flesh that runs just under the skin.

Continued cooking both little spuds and fish, still on medium-low heat and turning once more, until the spuds were tender when pierced and the raw fish's sponginess gave way to a firmer feel when prodded with a clean finger. It's important not to burn the butter, so watch it carefully - browned butter is good; black butter is bitter. The fish continues to cook a bit even after you remove it, so best to take it off the heat before it becomes too dry.

The resulting fish was my definition of perfect, nicely browned and crispy-buttery on both sides, still moist inside and with the very thickest part still ever-so-slightly rare. And so simple to do - no grill to clean, no weather worries, no big sloppy pan of hot water to discard. Just roll the potatoes onto the plate, add the salmon and a little green veg and you've got dinner. I won't hesitate in the future to pan my salmon.