Pan-fried salmon with white beans, cherry tomatoes and basil

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 skin-on, scaled portions of salmon
veg oil and butter to fry

2tbps extra virgin olive oil
Handful cherry toms, quartered
Pinch chilli flakes
Salt
Small glass white wine
1/2 large jar of white beans (I used 'Navarro' brand)
Handful mixed pitted olives, halved
5 basil leaves
1/2 clove garlic, very finely chopped

In a saucepan, gently saute the tomatoes with the chilli flakes and a little salt.  After 3 minutes add the white wine and simmer gently for less than a minute.  Add the white beans and olives.  Wash half the beans but add the rest straight from the jar.  Cook gently until beans are warmed through.  Pile the basil leaves together, roll into a cigar-shape then slice finely into a chiffonade.  Finish the stew at the last minute with the basil and garlic.

To cook the salmon, pre-heat the pan well and add generous veg oil and a knob of butter.  Season the salmon and cook almost all the time skin down.  Once in pan push down to ensure contact between skin and pan and eliminate air bubbles.  Then leave it to crisp up.  At the point of turning the fish you should be able to switch the heat off and let the fish rest and finish cooking in the pan.  It benefits from being slightly underdone.