Salmon origami - a new butterflying (and butter-frying) approach

I enjoy eating fish, but have rarely (that is, infrequently) cooked seafood. In part, I suspected that it might not fare well with my two junior diners. However, about a month ago I bought some salmon filets and decided to pan fry them. It was a hit with the whole family, so I have made this dish just about every other week. It is great served with some rice pilaf and a vegetable.

The recipe starts with three fresh deboned salmon filets (about 0.5 lb each), 

which are liberally salted (kosher) and peppered (fresh ground).

This is where I have deviated from other recipes. One issue I encountered with cooking the filets that I'm buying is that the thickness of the cut varies from a fraction of an inch on the left side to around 1.5 inches on the right. Thus, I decided that some simple butterflying to increase surface area would help cook these filets evenly. Make a single cut as shown, but do not cut through the skin underneath the filet. The intact skin, as you will see, helps hold the two pieces together in increase stability in the skillet.

Add two Tbsp of butter to a nonstick skillet and heat over med-high heat until the butter begins to foam. Add 1-2 Tbsp of vegetable oil to limit the butter browning, and then add each filet, flesh side down (the pan is a bit overcrowded - you want to leave an inch around each filet for even browning).

After about 3-4 minutes of pan-frying, it is time to turn the fish. It would be nice to be able to turn each 90 degrees to balance each filet on one side, but they're so narrow relative to the width of the filet that they normally would just tip over. Instead, fold each filet in half so that the skin side folds together (below). This allows frying what was originally the inside of the filet to allow even cooking.

The inside of one butterflied filet now frying in butter.

Notice how pink the middle of this filet was before folding. Now this side is going to be placed face-down in the skillet. Cook each side of each folded filet until golden-brown.

Three beautiful filets finishing frying.

Unfolding the salmon back into their original filets reveals fish that is as delicious to the eye as it is to the mouth! The meat is now easy to separate from the skin using a spatula or other serving utinsel. I squeeze a little lemon juice over each piece and serve.

Leftovers (if they exist) get combined cold with baby spinach leaves, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, and maybe some blue cheese crumbles and grape tomatoes for a lunch salmon salad the following day.