Easy and Impressive Salmon

Serves 2

Just multiply ingredients up for more people

2 salmon steaks
2 shallots or one small onion
3 tablespoons crème fraiche
lemon juice
butter for frying (olive oil spread is good cos it can handle higher temperatures)

Melt large lump of butter over a medium heat in a frying pan – enough to have a thick layer. Add a splash of lemon juice. Add finely chopped shallots and soften a little.

Put in salmon steaks. Up the heat so that they brown slightly, then turn over and do the other side. Reduce the heat so that the steaks can cook through. Splash a little more lemon juice onto the salmon.

After a couple of minutes you will begin to panic that the steaks will burn. This is good (the burning effect, not the panic), because the brown stuff makes the sauce rich - don't overdo it though! Add 2 tablespoons of the crème fraiche to the sauce, stir around, and leave to simmer.

The aim is for the salmon steaks to go light pink all the way through. If they are a bit thick, I put a saucepan lid over the steaks (because I don’t have a lid for my frying pan) to keep the heat in. This should take about 10 minutes.

The sauce is probably a bit see-through now, so just before serving, stir in another tablespoon of crème fraiche to make it look creamy.

Serve with the sauce poured over the salmon and either rice or new potatoes, and peas or leeks cooked in butter (obviously, the amount of butter used is terribly bad for you, so drink with a glass of chilled Chardonnay to assuage your guilt).