Dec 5-7 Tandoori Salmon and Parippu

Dec 5     sparkling wine and candy at Dianne's gingerbread house party!

Dec 6     Tandoori Salmon and Parippu (dal)

Dec 7     Tandoori Salmon Tacos

Shack is back on another movie so he hasn't been around a ton for dinner which means we are back to finding things that The Kid and I love that Shack doesn't love as much. We both really, really love salmon and Little Shack is developing a love for Indian food so I decided on tandoori salmon. I used the tandoori marinade from my beloved The Food Of India book for both the tandoori and the parippu, which is just a kind of dal using red lentils. For those of you who find making Indian food intimidating, this is a really simple thing to start with and although the list of ingredients can look kind of long, it's so easy to throw together. My only recommendation would be to grill the salmon if you can because it would have been better if it had all the nice, dark bits and the slightly burnt skin that comes from grilling but it's December and I don't have a gas grill so that was out of the question.

Little Shack loved the coconutty lentils and I will eat that dal every day until it is gone and be very happy about that so I made a big pot. I also made extra salmon because I knew we would do tandoori salmon tacos the next night because, remember, everything is delicious in a corn tortilla!

Tandoori Salmon

adapted from The Food Of India cookbook

marinade:

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1 onion, rough chop

3 cloves garlic, rough chop

2 inch piece ginger, rough chop

1 cup greek yogurt

grated zest of 1 lemon
3 tbls lemon juice

2 tbls white vinegar

1 tsp paprika

2 tsp garam masala

To make the marinade, blend all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend to a smooth paste. Season with salt to taste.

Marinate the salmon for at least a couple of hours and preferably all day.

When it's time to cook it, remove the salmon from the marinade, brush the excess marinade off and get rid of the marinade.

Preheat the oven to 450F

I like to heat an oven proof pan over med to med high heat and add a bit of oil and then put the salmon fillets in the pan, skin side down and cook for about three or four minutes like that, until the skin is getting nice and crispy. Then I pop the whole thing in a really hot oven until its cooked, about another 10 minutes. I then whip it out, put the rack up to the top, turn on the broiler and then broil the fish for a couple of minutes.

I served this with some raita , basmati rice, the parippu (dal) and steamed green beans.

Parippu (red lentils cooked in coconut milk)

1 cup masoor dal (red lentils)

1 onion, chopped

1 ripe tomato, chopped

1 cup coconut milk

1/4 tsp ground turmeric

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

2 tbls butter (ghee if you have it is better but i didn't) or vegetable oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp black mustard seeds

1/2 tsp grated ginger

1 onion, finely chopped

fresh cilantro

Put the lentils into a heavy bottomed saucepan with 2 cups of water, the roughly chopped onion and tomato, coconut milk, turmeric, ground cumin and coriander and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are cooked to a nice, soft mush - about 25 to 30 minutes. If they have dried out, add a bit more water.

For the final seasoning, or tarka, heat the butter  or oil in a small saucepan over med low heat. Add the cumin seed and mustard seed and cook until the seeds pop. Add the onion and the ginger and fry over med low heat until the onions are nice and golden brown. Stir this mixture into the lentils and cook for about 5 more minutes, adding salt to taste. Serve with a bit of fresh cilantro