One of my favorite ways of making Salmon…

It’s Monday, I am chilling at home and looking forward to having dinner with friends. For this holiday, I’ve decided to go light on cooking. I’ve been making easy breezy dishes for the past few days. Well, the dishes are not just easy to make, but they are made in a healthy way and in a delicious way as well. Yesterday, I made this salmon in tomato sauce. It was absolutely easy to make and it tasted absolutely delicious. I am sure whenever I buy salmon or any other fish I’ll be tempted to make this dish. I got this recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks by Rafi Fernandez. The original recipe used Cod and grilled the fish, while I used salmon and pan fried it.

Salmon in Tomato Sauce Recipe

Recipe Courtesy: Rafi Fernandes

Ingredients

For coating the salmon

• Salmon or cod- 4 steaks
• Corn flour or corn starch-  2 tbsp
• Garlic powder- 1 tsp
• Chilli powder- 1 tsp
• Ground ginger- 1 tsp
• Fennel powder- 1 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1 tsp
• Salt- 3/4 tsp

• Olive oil- 2 tbsp for pan frying

For making sauce

• Oil- 1 tbsp
• Bay leaves- 2
• Whole pepper corns- 1 tsp
• Cinnamon stick- 1 inch slice
• Tomato sauce- 3 tbsp
• Garam masala- 1 tsp
• Chilli powder- 1 tsp
• Garlic, minced- 1 tsp
• Ginger, minced- 1 tsp
• Salt- 1/2 tsp
• Water- 3/4 cup
• Cilantro, chopped- 1 handful
• Mint, chopped- 5-6 leaves

Last night, I craved for a sea food dinner. Well, I wasn’t surprised when I couldn’t find any fish in my freezer, so I went fishing shopping despite the blizzard. I met a lot of fishes in the sea food isle that I hadn’t tried yet, among them was Pollock. Just to try out a new fish, Pollock became my catch of the day.

I bought a bag of Pollock fillets and rushed home to make it my dinner. When it comes to fish, I love Indian way of cooking it especially Kerala style: Spicy and flavorful. I literally cannot think of poaching or baking fish with just ground pepper and salt. I need more flavors to it and every bite of it should make me go “mmm…”

On the other hand, my husband is not a huge fan of spicy food. The milder the food the happier he gets and he likes fish to be served not in a curry format. So keeping this in my mind and incorporating Kerala flavors I was successful enough to impress both of ours taste buds.

Pan Fried Pollock

Ingredients:

• Pollock fillets- 5 no’s
• Oil- for pan frying fish

For marination:

• Chilly powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Ground Pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 2 pinches
• Fennel Powder- 1 tsp
• Cumin Powder- 1/4 tsp
• Vinegar- 3 tbsp
• Salt-  to taste

For Cooking Veggies:

• Small Onion, chopped- 10 no’s
• Ginger, minced- 1 tsp
• Banana Pepper, de-seeded, cut round- 1
• Raw Green mango, cut long- 1
• Tomato, diced- 1
• Green pepper, diced- 1
• Broccoli florets- 1 cup
• Curry Leaves- 1 sprig (optional)
• Coriander powder- 1 tsp
• Fennel Powder- 1 tsp
• Chilly powder- 1/4 tsp
• Cumin Powder- 1/4 tsp

Preparation:

• In a small bowl, combine the above mentioned ingredients for marinating the fish.
• Spread the paste over each pollock fillet and keep aside for 10 minutes.
• Heat a non-stick pan, add enough oil for pan frying the fish. (Don’t add to much oil)
• Place the marinated fish and shallow fry it till both the sides turn golden brown. Avoid deep frying it. Keep aside.
• In the same pan used for frying the fish, add the small onions in the remaining oil ( if there is too much oil left, drain some).
• Add salt, minced ginger and curry leaves to the onions, saute for a minute.
• Add all the other veggies: banana pepper, green pepper, mango, tomato and broccoli to the pan.
• Cover the pan with its lid and let the veggies turn tender, don’t over cook the veggies.
• When the veggies turn tender, add: chilly powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and fennel powder.
• If the mixture is too dry, add some water to the veggies.
• Combine everything well and stir fry the veggies for a few minutes. Don’t cook till the gravy dries up.
• Serve the veggies on a plate making it as a bed and place the pan fried pollock over it. Pour some gravy over the fish.

Tips:

• You could try this recipe with any kind of fish fillets.
• If you want it more spicy, add more chilly powder or ground pepper according to your taste.

I am very picky when it comes to salad and salad has always been my last choice. When I make salad at home I make sure to hide the greens with delicious toppings so that I can forget the fact that I am having a salad. Last week, I made a sea food topping for the salad. I had bought a bag of sea food mix which contained shrimp, mussels, squid and calamari. All these are my all time favorite sea food. If only I had crab meat in my fridge, it would have been the perfect sea food mix.

I stir fried the sea food and made an orange sauce. Then combined the stir fried sea food with the sauce along with some veggies and topped this on the greens. Each and every mouthful of this salad was an “Aha! moment”.

Orange Sea food Salad

Ingredients:

• Sea Food mix (shrimp, squid, calamari and mussel)- 4 cups
• All purpose flour- 1/4 cup
• Chilly powder- 1 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/2 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Oil to stir fry- 4-5 tbsp
• Carrots, cut thin lengthwise- 1 large
• Celery, cut thin lengthwise- 2 stalks

For making sauce:

• Orange juice, fresh or canned- 3/4 cup
• Soy sauce, low sodium- 2 tbsp
• Ginger, minced- 2 tsp
• Lemon grass, chopped (use fresh or dried)- 1 tbsp
• Corn starch- 1 tbsp
• Cold water- 4tbsp, to dissolve the corn starch

For salad:

• I used lettuce and spinach
• Freshly grated or thinly cut orange peel-  1 tsp or 5-6 strands to sprinkle over the salad

Preparation:

• Wash the sea food mix under running water and pat dry using paper towel.

• Combine the all purpose flour, chilly powder, ground pepper and salt together in a bowl.

• Sprinkle the flour mix over the sea food and coat it evenly.
• You could also put the flour mix in a large plastic bag, add the sea food and shake, coating it evenly with the flour.

• Heat a wok or non-stick skillet over medium heat, add the oil to the skillet.
• When the oil turns hot, add the sea food mix coated with the flour and stir fry it till it turns golden brown and well cooked.

• Transfer the fried sea food on to a platter lined with paper towel.

• Stir fry the carrots and celery in the same wok or skillet till the veggies turn tender.
• In a bowl, combine together the orange juice, soy sauce, minced ginger and lemon grass.

• When the veggies have turned tender, pour the orange sauce over it and let come to a slight boil.

• Dissolve the corn starch in cold water and pour it over the sauce.
• Immediately stir the veggies and sauce together, the sauce will start to thicken.

• If the mixture is too thick you could add little water to thin it down.
• Add the stir fried sea food into the skillet and combine everything well.

• When the sauce has coated well over the sea food, remove the skillet from the stove.
• Place the greens: lettuce and spinach on a plate and top the greens with the sea food mixture.

• Sprinkle the freshly grated or thinly cut orange peel over the salad.
• For a nice presentation you could even place some orange slices and an orange rose.

Tips:

• You could try this with chicken as well.

Spicy fish curry is an unavoidable dish for someone from Kerala. This explains why I am obsessed with this dish. This fish curry is spicy, tangy and yummy. There are different ways of making fish curry, of which this one ranks the best. Any fish can be used to make this. However, sardines, anchovies and smelt would be the best choice. Actually, this dish tastes better the next day. In kerala, this fish curry is made in clay pots, it would enhance the taste of the curry greatly.This goes well with plain rice, chapathis, pathiris or boiled tapioca. One thing I can guarantee about this dish is that you will definitely lick your finger at the end out of extreme satisfaction, at least I do this.

Ingredients:

• Sardines- 10

For Marination:

• Chilly powder-1tsp
• Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
• pepper powder-1/2 tsp
• salt- as required
• oil-for shallow frying

• Put gashes on the fish and marinate with these ingredients and keep it aside for at least half an hour.
• Shallow fry the marinated fish on both sides in little oil.

For Making Gravy:

• Small onions chopped-10-15 nos
• Mustard seeds-1tsp
• Curry leaves-10
• Garlic minced-1/2 tsp
• Ginger minced-1/2 tsp
• Green chillies chopped-3
• Tomatoes-1 big, mashed well with fork
• Red chilli powder-1tsp
• Cumin powder-1tsp
• Coriander powder-1tsp
• Tamarind, lemon sized-soaked in 1cup water and strained
• oil-2tbsp

Preparation:

• In a deep bottomed pan, (if you have clay pot, use that), add oil, when the oil gets hot, add mustard seeds and let it splutter.
• Add small onions, saute well, then add ginger/garlic/green chillies/curry leaves and cook well until everything starts to turn brown.
• Add the mashed tomatoes at this point and cook well.
• Now add all the spice powders and stir well.
• Add the soaked, strained tamarind to the boiling mixture and allow it to boil.
• Add the shallow fried fish to the tangy mixture and close with a lid and cook in low heat for 5mts.
• Cook until the gravy gets a thick consistency. Let it cool down for at least 30mts and serve with your choice of sides.

Tips:

• You could alter the spice level based on your needs.
• This dish goes really well with Kappa aka Boiled Tapioca, authentic kerala dish, Kappa and Meen.