Because Frank is not generally a salmon fan, I’ve been looking at this recipe from Meera Sodha’s Made in India cookbook for a while. Since cooking more fish is one of my 2019 goals, I took the plunge and started with salmon. Don’t be put off by the long list of spices–you probably have most of them. Serves 4.
Salmon and Spinach Curry
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 6 whole peppercorns
- 2 cloves
- 1 large onion, chopped
- ½ teaspoon brown sugar (I used dark)
- 8-9 ounces ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 1 3/4″ piece of ginger, grated
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 jalapeño or serrano chili, finely chopped (optional)
- ¼ teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground coriander
- ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- 1 ¼ teaspoons salt
- 1 pound spinach leaves
- 14 ounces skinless salmon fillets, cut into big (2 ½”) chunks
Put the oil into a large lidded frying pan on medium heat. When it’s hot, add the cinnamon, peppercorns and cloves. Cook for 1-2 minutes until they start to release their aromas.
Add the onions and brown sugar and cook for 12-15 minutes until golden and caramelized. Stir in the tomatoes, put the lid on the pan and cook for 5 minutes until the tomatoes begin to soften.
Add the ginger, garlic, jalapeño, garam masala, cumin, coriander, turmeric, chili powder and salt. Stir to make sure the spices don’t stick to the bottom of the pan. After about 8 minutes the mixture should thicken and look paste-like. When it does, add the spinach, turn the heat down to low, put the lid back on and leave the spinach to wilt.
Add the salmon to the pan, coating it with the tomato and spinach sauce. Put the lid back on and cook for 5-7 minutes until the salmon cooks through. Serve and enjoy!
My verdict:
Frank gave it his highest praise (especially for salmon) “you can make this any time” and the fact that it was so good with only okay (January) tomatoes made me think it would be even better with truly ripe tomatoes (hello August).
Made in India has become one of my favorite cookbooks and everything I’ve made from it has been great. I’ll certainly make the salmon again and go on to some of the other fish recipes that have caught my eye.
I cooked the salmon for 6 minutes and it was perfect (medium rare). If you like it more well-done, go for 7 or more minutes. I served it over basmati rice. Because it was what was handy, I used a mix of regular and baby spinach and cooked it until it just started to wilt.
