Tuesday, 29 September 2009

Recipe of the Week

Welcome to the first of my recipes of the week - I've decided that I spend so much time beer & food matching that I really ought to try and publish some of what I cook & drink at home.

So the first one is spicy salmon with yellow split pea dahl (Caribbean spelling, Indian spicing! If you're that bothered about what I'm wittering about you can check out the definitions here).

Anyway, on with the show, serves two with some dahl left over for another day or freezing.

Ingredients for the salmon:
Two salmon fillets/steaks
Harissa or other hot chilli paste
Garam Masala
Sea salt
Groundnut oil

Ingredients for dahl:
Groundnut oil
100g yellow split peas
One medium-large onion
Thumb-sized knob of ginger
Two very fat garlic cloves
1dsp black mustard seeds
1dsp Garam Masala
Tsp each of dry fried cumin seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds & fenugreek + pinch of chilli powder or flakes (alternatively use a dsp of your favourite curry powder if this seems like a faff)
Can of good plum tomatoes
Small handful of green raisins (optional)
Pinch of sugar
1/2 tsp of asafoetida (you will thank me for this addition, it's a 'digestive aid' - you can draw the conclusion as to how it helps from there!)
Bag/three good handfuls of spinach

To garnish:
Mint
Natural yoghurt (I use fat-free but you don't have to)
Seasoning
Lemon

Method:
  1. Roughly chop your onions, and pop them in a good-sized saucepan to gently sweat, you don't want any colour
  2. After a few minutes grate the ginger and add that
  3. As the onions turn transluscent chop your garlic cloves and add them
  4. After a minute add all your spices and when the mustard seeds start to pop pour your peas into a sieve and rinse under the tap and add
  5. Stir mix together then add the raisins and then add tomatoes and pinch of sugar
  6. Fill tomato can full of water and pour that in, bring to a boil and then leave on a low heat to simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, you may have to top up with water, keep an eye on it
  7. After 20 minutes take your salmon out of the fridge and make some slashes in the skin (your knife will have to be sharp for this or don't bother trying, you'll slash your thumb)
  8. Rub in enough harissa or chilli paste to cover the whole surface (be careful it's not a really hot sauce unless that's how you like it) and then sprinkle lightly with garam masala and a little sea salt, and put the oven on (160 for fan, which I think is 180 normal oven)
  9. Leave covered
  10. After a further 10 minutes put your frying pan or skillet on to heat, make sure your pan is hot add some groundnut oil and put the fish in skin-side down, fry until just going golden and going opaque half-way up and pop in the oven to finish - I put mine in for about six minutes to finish as I like it a little opaque in the middle
  11. Chop the mint and stir it into the yoghurt with a squeeze of lemon, season to taste (you can also swirl in some more harissa if you want to, I use Belazu's rose harissa, it's a handy thing to have in the fridge and lasts forever)
  12. Take fish out to rest, cover with foil, and after a few minutes test your peas, they should be done and at this point you stir in your spinach & asafoetida at the last minute but if not then just leave the salmon somewhere warm to rest
  13. Serve salmon on top of spinachy dahl, drizzle with your dressing
  14. Then crack open a Weltenburger Assam Bock or, for contrast, a clear wheat beer like O'Hanlon's Goldblade or Okells MacLir, and stick your feet up
Cheers!
p.s. no pics because my camera broke whilst in Denver, it's for this reason there aren't any pics I took from there on my blog either! Grr!

3 comments:

Laurent Mousson said...

Sounds nice, thanks !

"your knife will have to be sharp for this or don't bother trying, you'll slash your thumb"

Now do I smell some first-hand experience here ? ;o)

Melissa Cole said...

No, seen someone else do it though, ugly right through the to bone! Ugh!

Zythophile said...

I like tarka dahl - it's a little 'otter …