Comfort Food: Salmon Soy Lemon Honey

This is a recipe I have probably made nearly 100 times. I will go for months on end where it is made at least once a week. I like to keep it in single-serving containers to bring to lunch, eat for dinner, or enjoy for a midnight snack. It is warm and sweet and you don't even need to chew it too much. It is one of my ultimate comfort foods. Plus, it has four ingredients and is fantastically easy and quick to make. This is a totally satisfying dish.

I got this dish about two years ago when I was flipping through cookbooks looking for something new to do to salmon. In a Martha Stewart cookbook I found this in a slightly different form. It had a teaspoon of coriander seeds. Martha instructed we first toast the coriander seeds and then grind for the sauce. Further, one of the liquids was specified as 1/4 cup while the other was specified as 5 tablespoons. Since I did not yet have coriander seeds and it made me slightly bonkers that she said 5 tablespoons (instead of a 1/4 cup and another tablespoon?) I omitted the coriander and now make the sauce with equal parts soy sauce and honey. Also, I don't bother measuring the lemon juice, I just squeeze what I can from half a lemon.

Did I mention this recipe is very easy? The only step that takes a little more time is removing the skin from the salmon. I have learned that if your knife is relatively sharp all you have to do is glide it back and forth under the skin and the skin will come off easily. Let the knife do the work.

[about the picture: I have noticed a lot of my recent pictures are looking kind of brown/orange. This salmon is mostly pink, brown, and orange. So I just composed a picture using some of the ingredients. I think lemons are especially lovely when freshly cut.]

Soy-Lemon-Honey Salmon

4 4-6oz pieces salmon (skin removed)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 lemon (juice from...)

(1-2 tbs olive oil, you will also want a timer)

1. Mix honey, and soy with squeezed juice from the half lemon.
2. Pour some of the mix over salmon to coat.
3. Pour olive oil into a pan, making one or two trips around in a circle. Heat the pan to medium-high heat (I use 7 on my stove top's 1-10 dial).
4. When oil is hot place salmons in pan. Cook at medium-high heat for 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium-low heat (#4 on my 1-10 dial) and cook another 2 minutes. Flip salmon over and cook another 3 minutes at the medium-low heat. Remove to a plate.
5. Turn heat back to medium-high and reduce sauce until it just begins to bubble. (3-5 minutes). You want to watch this as the sauce smells terrible if you burn it.
6. Serve! I suggest over rice that has had edamame beans added in the last 3 minutes of cooking.