Masala Salmon

I did not know I was making this Masala Salmon until I picked my new barbecue recipe book.

I got two Salmon steaks from Chinatown and its only 10 minutes before dinner time, that I got ahead with making this recipe and I am so glad I did!

Page 373 of The Barbecue Collection has this recipe, which is quite easy. The original recipe has curry paste in it, but I personally don’t like curry powder or paste so I conveniently left it out. The rest of the ingredients remained the same.

Ingredients for Masala Salmon are:

Two Salmon steaks
1 small red onion
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup fresh coriander
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3-4 green chilies/ hot peppers
2 teaspoon grated root ginger
2-3 cloves garlic minced
1/4 vegetable oil
Salt

Finely chop the onion. In a skillet, heat oil and deep fry the onions till they turn red and crispy. Reserve the oil and remove the onions with a slotted spoon. Let it cool.
In a blender, add the ginger, garlic, yogurt, green chilies, coriander, lemon juice, the fried onions, very little of the oil (from the onions) and salt. Give it a good swirl. This is the marinade for your fish.

Slobber the fish steaks with this marinade. For basting, drizzle the remaining oil you used to fry the onions.

Let the fish stand in its marinade for about 15 minutes.

I used the broiler of my oven (on high) and grilled the salmon for about 7-8 minutes on each side.

I served the Salmon Masala with some Potato Wedges and a Mexican-inspired Salsa. (Remember all those fresh vegetables I got from the Farmers’ Market?)
For the Salsa, I chopped finely a small red onion, half a cucumber, a firm red tomato, two red radishes, a handful of coriander and a few green chilies (I used the Thai green chilies). The seasoning was a simple lemon juice, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper (or a pinch of red chili powder), and half a teaspoon of cumin powder. That’s a whole lot of flavor and crunch in a bowl.
A perfect, delicious and remarkably “healthy” dinner was awaiting us, and it took me less than an hour to make it! The flavor the fried onions added to the fish was just so classy, I intend to do it to a few other recipes I have in mind.

Only wish the local Pakistani restaurant offered fish this good.