My first formal food post

So, it occurred to me as I was writing in my other blog that I should start to separate food from fun. However, as the two have gone hand-in-hand since I started cooking a lot more in France, I've decided to dedicate this particular blog to recipes of my favourite courses and meals, whether or not they were cooked by me. I'll be starting this blog with food from the last few weeks of February, including recipes and/or photos along the way. And now, voilà, the first recipe must be my favourite to prepare, because of it's simplicity and taste: salmon.

N.B. Each photo will be accompanied by a short description of the food presented. In parenthesis, one will find the approximate time I cooked/ate the food, followed by any dinner guests we may have had.

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I've cooked salmon twice in my life, both times of which were here in Paris. However, for the amount of fish I eat back home (which is nothing, really), I've had my fair share of it given that it's my favourite of them all.

Best cohesive salmon meal: Salmon with asparagus and wild rice
(first Friday of Lent; Elise and Jane)

Best salmon I have ever had, served with green beans
(end of January; Lauren, for her birthday)

What you'll need to cook the salmon:
Salmon filet (I've found that the fresher, the better. Check out your local poissoneries!), one per person or if the filets are really thick or you plan on serving a huge dinner, 1/2 per person works, too.
Salt and pepper (use freshly ground pepper, if you can)
Lemon
Extra virgin olive oil
A pan

What you need to do:
1) Season both sides of each salmon filet with the salt and pepper.
2) Flesh-side up, squeeze some fresh lemon juice onto the filets.
3) Cook at medium heat. Heat up some olive oil in the pan, and once hot (the viscosity of the extra virgin olive oil gets to be really low, i.e., runs smoothly), fry the salmon filet skin-side up for 4 minutes.
4) Gently reposition each filet so that you're cooking one side for 1,5 minutes; then, finish flipping the salmon halfway (meaning now it's skin-side down) and cook for another 4 minutes. Cook the other side of the filet for another 1,5 minutes, then reposition the filet one last time so you've returned skin-side up. This may seem like more time than usual, but that's because the filets I've been working with have been quite thick. Lessen the time (or even just the heat) if you think the fish is cooking too fast.
5) Once you can gently separate the fish with a fork, the fish is done and ready to serve.

Note: Do try and be extremely careful during the flipping process. The aim is to serve the salmon in as whole a filet as possible!