DH and I enjoy travel but have certain places that are dearer to our hearts than others and Florida is one. It’s not just the mostly balmy weather, it’s the unimaginable calm that seeps into our bones from the laid back pace and the fact that we usually meet up with dear friends here as well. Add to that the huge number of eateries, elegant and simple and generally speaking, by the time we get back home we are more than mellow.

In this vein, I like to experiment with the food here (can’t eat out every night!) and I always bring with me some “Florida” pans and utensils which I squirrel away from year to year. Now mind you, I use ingredients easily found in Israel so that my foodie buddies can make this at home as well. The cherries I used were fresh ones but you can just as easily use frozen or jarred, they produce a good result.

You need 2 pans for this – or a pan for the salmon and a pot or pan for the sauce but this whole dish takes you about 10 minutes to put together and I gotta tell you, DH almost literally licked his plate. The cherry sauce elevates the already delicious salmon to sublime and you know I’m gonna make this again and again.

There are few ingredients involved and this is precisely because we try not to overbuy when here and make sure to use everything up so it’s easy to put together. Gather your ingredients –

The recipe is for 2 generous fillets of salmon but of course you can double the ingredients or treble them for a larger crowd.

I had a larger fillet but I cut it into portion size. So take your fillets, rinse and pat dry with paper towels. It’s important to pat them dry or the skin won’t crisp up and that’d be a shame. Then salt and pepper them. K.

You do this first so the salmon can firm up a bit. The salt draws out some of the moisture, but don’t let the salmon sit too long, only about 5 minutes while you get the sauce going.

Slice the cherries in half and pit (of course if pitted and frozen or jarred, you’ve saved a step but still cut in half). Place in a pot or pan.

Add the brown and white sugar to the pan (it’s not much and yes, use both kinds it adds a dimension of flavor), a pinch of salt and a few tablespoons of grape juice and the brown (or deli) mustard.

Don’t worry if it seems mustardy, it’s meant to be a bit mustard forward. If it’s too much for you, put in a drop less. Stir up the mixture and let simmer for about 10 minutes or so till it looks like this:

While the sauce cooks, take your other pan and heavily oil spray it like this:

This is instead of a few tablespoons of oil (which I didn’t have to hand and it worked a treat).

Now make sure the pan is hot and place the salmon skin side down on the hot pan.

I mean that in a good way, just enough oil to both keep the salmon from sticking (even in a nonstick pan) and to sear nicely. K. Your sauce is cooking on low on the burner in the back, your salmon is sizzling on medium high in the front. Make sure the salmon skin isn’t burning but also that it’s merrily crisping up. Now no peeking except once, and let salmon cook for about 5 minutes skin side down. Carefully flip salmon to skin side up and it should look like this:

Now this part is up to you. You don’t want to overcook the salmon and dry it out but everyone has different taste with how well done they like it. Me n DH like it medium but rare would be about 3 more minutes on the non-skin side and medium about 5 minutes. Longer might dry it out but that’s up to your preference. Now get a nice plate (here is mea culpa, only had Dixie plates – even though for paper they’re pretty, it ain’t my usual plating) and by now your sauce is ready, ain’t it great when it all comes together? And place the salmon skin side up and pour half the sauce over each fillet. Beyond scrumptious, sweet, tangy and savory, nice with a leafy green salad with strawberries and walnuts.

Pan Seared Crispy Salmon with Cherry Sauce

For the sauce:

1/2 cup (70 grams) halved pitted cherries I used fresh but you can use frozen or jarred

1-1.5 tablespoons brown mustard

2 teaspoons white sugar

2 teaspoons brown or raw sugar

Pinch of salt

2 tablespoons grape juice

For the salmon:

Salt

Pepper

2- 6 ounce (170 gram) salmon fillets, rinsed and patted dry

Spray oil

Directions:

Salt the salmon fillets and pepper them. Let stand while you prepare the cherry sauce.

Place pitted cherries in pan with sugar and brown sugar, a pinch of salt, grape juice and brown mustard. Bring to a boil and reduce heat and simmer until reduced about 10-12 minutes or so.

While sauce is cooking, take a nonstick pan and spray oil heavily. Get pan hot and take the salted and peppered salmon and place skin side down in pan, it should sizzle. Lower to medium- medium high heat. Cook salmon for about 5 minutes until skin is browned and crispy and carefully flip over and continue cooking about 3-5 or so minutes skin side up, 3 minutes for rare, longer for medium. The amount of time you cook them also depends on how thick your fillets are, keep an eye on them. Your sauce should be done by the time you finish the salmon. Serve with cherry sauce on top, right from the pan.