Simple Salmon Recipe That will Make You an Excellent Cook
Pan-Fried Salmon Recipe
Based on my numerous failed attempts of trying to cook fish as good as it is in a couple of restaurants I know, I came to discover a few things about cooking salmon; number one being, always keep it simple.
If you want to cook salmon like a pro, then follow my advice and steer clear of all the complicated recipes and seasonings. Lest one of the flavors you use ends up ruining all your effort of becoming an excellent salmon cook.
I’m putting more emphasis on this because salmon is delicate, and would as such also advise you to be wary of the fish mongers you choose to get your salmon from.
Always make sure your salmon is super fresh. If it’s smelling fishily, it’s NOT fresh. Instead, it should be smelling like the sea or the oceanic saltwater breeze where it came from.
As for cooking, make sure you season it as it cooks to completely get rid of the fishily taste.
Yield
Makes 4 servings
Active Time
22 minutes
Ingredients
6 to 8 ounces of Fresh salmon fillets
Salt
4 to 8 cloves of garlic
4 knobs of Butter
Vegetable oil
4 sprig of thyme
Directions
- Remove the salmon fillets from your fridge and bring them to room temperature. Try patting them using a paper towel, particularly the skin side, after which you can make a small slit diagonally cutting across the skin side. Go ahead and season both sides generously with salt and black pepper.
- Place some little cooking oil on a cast iron pan or steel sauté and place it on high heat. A quick read through some of the pots and pans reviews found online should help you find a good pan.[amazon_link asins=’B01KN72YIA’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’thebabyspo0c9-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’ffd742f7-660f-11e8-b397-9d8ad3ae2e8f’]
- Let the oil heat until hot, then gently lay the fillets skin side down.
- Try walking the spoon across the fillets, pushing it gently down to make the fish skin touch the pan base. Failure of which most of the parts not touching the pan base will wind up moist and soft–when we want them crispy, NOT soggy.
- After about 10 minutes, lower the heat a tad and continue cooking until about 50% of the fish is cooked.
- Now take the four cloves of garlic and crush or cut them on a chopping board before tossing them into the pan alongside the knob of butter and the sprigs of thyme. Use a trusty spoon to baste the fish, spooning the butter over. This serves two purposes:
- It adds the taste of garlic and thyme into the fillets, infusing it with the already delicious taste of butter.
- It helps to cook the upper half of the fillets.
Continue basting the fillets until they’re medium rare.
- Flip the fillets gently after the 20th minute of cooking, letting the flesh side to cook for about 3 seconds. Remove it and place it on a wire rack, letting it rest for a minute or so.
The dish can be accompanied with mashed potato, rice or any couscous that you can dress with the sauce.
Recipes for preparing salmon are everywhere. However, this recipe leaves you with plenty of room space to exercise your creativity. For instance, to make the salmons even sweeter, try seasoning them with balsamic vinegar, some lemon juice or brown sugar. There’s also a whole list of Spanish appetizers that you can skim through and see what works for you.
Jennifer is a certified cook enthusiast and a legit photographer from Ohio, USA. She is a food lover and thus makes blogs about it at Imaddictedtocooking, which include her own photos for the demonstration of how the recipes are made. Contact her at @jenniferimaddi1
