Checkerboard Salmon

Ok, so every once in a while I like to cook some fish. Cod, Mahi Mahi, and sometimes Salmon. One day I was thinking of how I like Salmon, nice and juicy, but I was wanting something with a bit of a crust, a slightly crunchy feel to the meat. So, after a few experiments, I came up with this! I hope you enjoy!

First, your salmon. The amount doesn't matter all that much, just as long as you can fit it in one go into the pan. here I have about a 1lb whole fillet from my local grocer. 

Heat up your oven to 425F, and get an oven safe pan coated with non-stick spray ready. This dish will not be covered in the oven.

Don't remove the skin, as you'll need it to hold everything together. Take a long kitchen knife, and very slowly, and gently cut the salmon lengthwise all the way across, and about 90% through the salmon. You don't want to go all the way through, and you'll cut in about 1 inch strips.

Once that's done, turn the fillet 90 degrees and do the same in intersecting lines. You're going to basically make a 1 inch cube.

Once that's complete, sprinkle with about 1/2 tsp of salt. No other ingredients are going on at this point, they'll just burn. Spray your skillet liberally with some non-stick spray, turn your burner to medium high. You can also use some olive oil, but be careful as too much and you're looking at a potential grease splatter-fest as soon as you slap your fillet onto it. Once you barely start to see some smoke coming from the oil, quickly put your fillet meat side down and DO NOT MOVE IT. Don't poke it, don't stick your spatula under it NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU WANT TO! I know it's rough, but trust me on this. Just trust me. 

Now, as you can see in the picture above, the salmon will start to cook and you'll see the meat start to turn from orange next to the pan, to more of a pale white-orange. You may want to back down your heat to medium. This is fine, what we're looking for is the meat to be that pale cooked pink about half way up the fillet. This will take about 5 solid minutes. Once it's about half cooked on the sides, take your spatula (a pancake spatula comes in very handy here FYI) and press down against the pan and start to gently work it under the Salmon. You'll notice that it has some stick to the pan, but not really a whole lot. Remove it from the pan, and place it on some foil, or an oven safe pan and stick it in the oven @ 425 for about 20 minutes.

Remember when I told you not to mess with the fillet with your spatula? Notice that nice bronze crust on top of the Salmon? If you futz'd with it while it was in the early stages of getting this crust, it would tear, have an improper crust, or at worse burn from smaller pieces of meat being torn off and turning to charcoal. The Salmon will attach to the hot pan almost immediately, and as it cooks it will form a crust and start to remove itself normally from the pan, saving you a LOT of cleaning, and giving you some delicious crust for your efforts!

Once the fillet is out of the oven, sprinkle with Pepper and Dill. If you'd added them in earlier they would have blackened almost immediately upon contact with the pan. Not tasty.

1 Salmon fillet 1-2 lbs
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
1/2 tsp Dill
Lemon (optional)