Salmon and Mashed Rutabaga

Pan-fried salmon is a favorite around here. We buy only wild-caught salmon, not farmed, and not colored. Usually you can find the filets frozen in packs of two, wild-caught sockeye, with the skin on. Fish farms are a bit disgusting, so we prefer salmon caught in the open ocean. Don't tell me about long lines, I have read the same articles. Anyway, without passing judgement, let's talk about how to cook the filets. Mette knows just how to get the skin super-crispy. Salmon skin is another amazing gift of nature. It's fatty, salty, crispy; it's like a pescine version of pork rinds. We"ll show you how to cook it properly so that it's not soggy or slimy, and you'll wonder how many pieces of salmon skin you have thrown away in your life. One of my good scientist friends is Japanese. He and his British wife had a lawn party in Princeton at the height of last summer. He grilled some salmon and, as is his wont, he saved all the grilled, and quite crispy, skin, but no one ate it. He and I, and Mette, stood around in his kitchen and put away some major quantities of beautifully crispy, perfectly seasoned, marvelously fatty sockeye salmon skin.
Tonight we decided to pair this with some mashed rutabaga. Rutabaga is a less starchy, maybe more expensive version of mashed potatoes. It does taste quite a bit like mashed potato but sweeter. Peel the rutabaga and cut into a large dice. Boil in water until tender, maybe 30 minutes. Drain, season with salt and pepper, and mash with some butter; prepare just as you like to do for mashed potatoes.
Start with raw salmon filets with the skin on; thaw if frozen. Dry the filets with paper towels and season both sides with salt and pepper. Heat a saute pan medium-high with a little butter until the butter foams and then subsides. Place the filets in the pan, skin side down, and cook for about 5 minutes. Now, this is important. Do not move the filets. Do not worry that they will stick. There is a lot of fat in the skin, and when they are ready, they will unstick themselves. This is the secret to crispy skin. After about 5 minutes you will be able to jiggle the pan and move the filets around. Flip the filets over and cook through as you like. Some of you will like rare salmon; my wife, who was born in an island city in the North Sea I might add, does not. Flip the fish back over and squeeze a little lemon juice over it. Serve with a little chopped fresh dill. We like this with the side of mashed rutabaga and some brown rice fresh from the rice cooker.