pan roasted salmon (second attempt)

the person who makes this dish best is ian, but seeing as he has to go to work during the week, emery is occasionally subject to second-rate salmon. i'm hoping to improve upon this. anyway, i picked up two center-cut salmon fillets from whole foods (this is responsibly farm raised salmon from norway, where colour has been added to the feed - as an aside, i recently watched an episode of american's test kitchen, which said that farm-raised salmon is often better to buy than wild salmon as its mercury level tends to be lower) and decided to make emery some lunch. the recipe i use is a mash-up between ian's and the splendid table's. it's actually quite simple (as one million recipes and people will tell you) and yet i still manage to make the salmon look like it's been mauled by some rabid animal before it hits the plate. i served it with some garlicky shells and broccoli (using an awesome recipe adapted from the smitten kitchen). so yesterday's lunch was a relative success, in that i did not feed emery microwaved leftovers from a week ago.

ingredients

2 salmon fillets

1 large shallot, 

3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

1/2 teaspoon of fresh thyme, chopped (i used much less than this this time, because i forgot about it until the last minute and ended up just throwing in a few leaves)

2 tablespoons of olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

salt and pepper both sides of the salmon. heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat. cook salmon skin side down for about 1.5 minutes (this ended up being more like 2.5 minutes yesterday as i had a slight problem prying the salmon off the pan to flip it...there was some panicking and a lot of oil popping up and hitting me in the face) and then on the other side for about 1.5 minutes. reduce the heat to medium-low/low, cover, and cook for about 5 minutes, flipping once. the salmon should be barely cooked through in the center (obviously, i need to work on this). move salmon to a plate and tent with foil.

add the shallots, garlic, and thyme to the pan and cook in remaining oil until the shallots are browned. top salmon with shallot mixture. shred and serve to a hungry one-year-old.