Atlantic Salmon Grill With Improvised Salsa

This recipe is part two of a two part meal featuring the freshest taste of the Earth and the sea. Here, we marry the amazing freshness of Atlantic salmon with the exciting vivid taste of a improvised salsa sauce of tomato, bell pepper, and sunflower seed. On top of that, we join this recipe with a playful "mushroom burger" to seal the deal.

Ingredients

Not all materials on picture are used for the salmon

Atlantic salmon fillet
garlic
fresh basil leaves
salt
black and white pepper
chili pepper
thymes
oregano
olive oil and butter

How to Remove Scales

From where I buy fish, the fillet always comes with skin and scales in tact. When grilling, you want to keep the skin as it gives the fillet just enough consistency to not fall apart, but the scale is very tough and unpleasant to eat (to say the least).

To remove the scales, hold the fish down on a board on one corner under a water source (best done in the sink). Using a sharp knife, glide over the skin against the direction of the scale (tail to head), while keeping the edge perpendicular to the skin. Rinse with water after a few runs to wash away the scale that got lifted by your knife. You will need to make several runs to remove all the scales. Do not tilt the knife's edge in the direction or the movement, or you risk damaging the skin by undercutting it.

Prepping and Seasoning

Have a few leaves of basil, a chili pepper, and garlic ready on the side
on the skin side of the salmon, make a few shallow cuts across the skin.
for both side, season and rub in the pepper, thymes, oregano, black and white pepper, and salt

Grilling (browning)

In a hot pan:

pour in 3 tbsp of olive oil
once the oil is hot, place the salmon skin side down, let it grill to a slightly crisp texture
flip to the other side and grill until lightly browned

Grilling (poêlée)

Melt 1 tbsp of butter in the same pan, flip the salmon to skin-side down, turn to medium-low heat
add in the garlic, basil leaves, and chili
to do a proper poêlée, slightly tilt the pan so that the oil meets on one side. Move the spices to the lower side while placing the salmon on the other side. Use a spoon to scoop the oil up and drizzle over the salmon. Repeat this step multiple times (~3 - 5 minutes).
Then, place the spices on top of the salmon, and scoop the grease on top of the spice to wash that flavor down to the salmon, repeat a few times.
Remove from heat.

Finishing Up

Place some salsa in plate first (see part one), and then place the salmon on top of that
Drizzle some lime juice over the salmon
Serve immediately alongside the mushroom burger (part one).