Teriyaki Glazed Salmon

This is a great way to prepare salmon fillets.  It's easy and flavorful- the salmon has a sticky, intense, sweet and salty glaze clinging to it.  It's not the kind of sauce you want to pour all over rice, so I served a nice warm potato salad and some steamed broccoli with it.  And yes, that IS a huge-ass serving of salmon.  I cut the fillet into 2 pieces to facilitate cooking it, then we cut the girls portions off the more done ends of ours (after this pic!).

This goes together fast so I have everything at the ready:

The vegetables?  That's boiled new potatoes, and thinly sliced fennel and scallions.  A little parsley waits on the side.

Right, that's a fennel bulb.  Just cut off the stalks, halve it,  pare out a central core which you will see, and the rest is fully edible raw or cooked.  The teriyaki glaze is simply about 3T each brown sugar, sake or water,  and soy sauce, and 1t each fresh garlic and fresh or ground ginger.  

The salmon is seared on the first side on med high heat, about 1 1/2 minutes.  With a good nonstick pan, you don't even need to add any oil: 

As soon as it is flipped, the glaze is added.  It will boil up violently.  Turn down the heat to med. You can control the outcome of this dish with 2 things-  a cover,and some water.  If your glaze is boiling away too fast, that is, before the salmon is cooked, either add water or slap a lid on it to both prevent evaporation and raise the cooking temp. 

Ideally the salmon should be a perfect medium rare just as the glaze is reduced to a deliciously syrupy consistency.  Plan on about 8 minutes total cooking time.  Flip the salmon over a few more times to really coat it with the glaze. 

Meanwhile, I browned the potatoes in butter, then tossed in the other veggies just until crisp- tender.  Steamed the broccoli- done.