I’m still cooking my way through a supply of salmon which needs to be finished, so for the last filled, I cooked this recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s book, Jerusalem. The sauce was delicious, and because I was only cooking for myself, I poached each portion of fish in a serving of the sauce as I needed it.
INGREDIENTS:
- Vegetable oil
- 3 tbsp plain flour
- 4 portions of salmon, preferably salmon steaks
- 6 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 2 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 tbsp caraway seeds, dry-toasted and then ground
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/3 tsp cayenne
- 1/3 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 green chilli, chopped
- 150ml water
- 2 tbsp tomato puree
- 1 to 2 tsp caster sugar, to taste
- 1 lemon, cut into wedges, and 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp chopped coriander leaf
- Salt and pepper
METHOD:
- Put the flour in a dish and season with salt and pepper. Coat the fish steaks or fillets in the seasoned flour
- Heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil in a large frying pan for which you have a lid. Sear the seasoned fish on each side for a couple of minutes, so that the coating is gold. Once the fish is fried, cool the pan and wipe it clean.
- Put the garlic, spices, chilli, and a couple of spoonfuls in a processor or pestle and mortar, and grind to a thick paste. You may need to add a little more oil.
- In a small jug, mix the tomato puree and water, and have this ready by the hob.
- Into the freshly cleaned pan, heat another couple of tbsp oil, and when it is hot, add the spice paste, stir and spread this out so it cooks for around 30 seconds.
- Add the water and tomato puree. This will spit a bit and it will stop the spices burning. Bring to a simmer, and add 3/4 tsp sugar, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. That is the sauce made. At this point, you could store it for cooking later.
- Put the fish into the sauce, bring to a simmer and cook for around 10 minutes, or maybe less. The fish should be hot and tender when it is done. Take the fish off the heat and leave it to cool slightly, before serving warm, garnished with coriander and a wedge of lemon.
I served this with super-quick couscous and some steamed green beans. I put 50g of couscous in a wee jug with a pinch of marigold stock powder, and then poured in 75g boiling water, covered and let it sit for 3 minutes.