Tarragon salmon salad

I found a recipe and made tarragon salmon—seared and baked salmon topped with a tarragon vinaigrette. It was great. Given the vinaigrette, it was quite obvious how this could form the basis for a really nice salad. I followed the recipe as before, but made a bit more vinaigrette and put the salmon on a bed of lettuce with radishes (to contrast with the flavor of the tarragon) and small multicolor tomatoes. Very good.

I learned something about cooking salmon with this recipe. You first sear the salmon, skin-sized down, for 3 minutes in a very hot pan (hotter than you would normally get a pan for most things). Then the salmon went into the oven for a few minutes to finish cooking. What this does is to make the skin very crisp and tasty, as opposed to when you don’t do this and the skin is not eaten.

I was conflicted on giving credit for the source of this recipe. I am a retired college professor and had to be scrupulously careful in giving proper citations for all sources. I have consulted multiple recipes online in making previous salads and frittatas on this blog. But I have generally blended ideas from multiple recipes and have not felt a need to cite any of them as the source. This was different. I followed the recipe I found exactly, with the exception of proportionately reducing the quantities of ingredients for the vinaigrette. But here was the problem: In looking at recipes online, I have frequently found the same recipe on multiple sites, never with mentions of another as the source. The recipe I followed came in an email from a merchant who frequently includes recipes with his (often) interesting emails. I doubted it was original. And indeed, it took only a minute of googling to find exactly the same recipe online, down to the identical language for the preparation instructions. But was this the original source? Or could I find the same recipe on another website? And if I did, how would I know which, if either, was the original? After going down this rabbit hole, I have concluded that I cannot and need not cite recipes found online or received in emails such as this one. If I do use a recipe from a cookbook, however, I will cite the source.

salmon filet (I used a fairly thin sockeye salmon filet, which worked well)
olive oil

lettuce (I used baby butter lettuce)
radishes, sliced
small tomatoes, cut in half (I used multicolor tomatoes)

tarragon vinaigrette

3 tablespoons olive oil
1-1/2 tablespoons orange juice
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1-1/2 tablespoons minced fresh tarragon leaves
1-1/2 tablespoons minced shallots
3/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
fresh ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Brush the salmon with olive oil. Put a small amount of olive oil in a pan and get the pan very hot. Sear the salmon skin side down for about 3 minutes. Put in a lightly oiled baking dish and put in the oven to roast for 5 to 8 minutes, until done.

Arrange the lettuce, radishes, and tomatoes on the plate. Whisk or shake in a small jar the ingredients for the vinaigrette. Spoon part of the vinaigrette over the salad. When the salmon is done, put in on the salad. Spoon vinaigrette over the salmon.