A delicious Asian recipe for salmon

Tandoori Salmon with

Rogan Josh spiced lentil dahl

Until recently and for no particular reason I’ve never been attracted to fish curries and their like.   That was until I met chef Julien Clémot at Dunbrody House Cookery School, in Arthurstown, near Waterford in the south east of Ireland recently, his way with spiced salmon changed my mind www.dunbrodyhouse.com

So here, dedicated to Chef Julien is something he inspired me to create.

We begin backwards way around, by making the lentils first, since they take the longest time to cook and by the way, I always use dried lentils as the base for this dish.  Prepared lentils bought in jars are fine, but they’re always very soft and “mushy;” but cooked from scratch you can control the texture of your dish

Ingredients

250 gm good quality dried lentils

250 gm salmon fillets *

2 tablespoonsful ground coriander seeds

1 x dried chilli

Half x teaspoonful turmeric powder

gm full fat yoghurt

2 x cloves garlic

1 x walnut sized “knob” of fresh ginger

1 x medium onion

Juice of half a fresh lemon

100 ml sunflower oil

Chopped fresh cilantro (coriander) leaves

Pre-prepared Tandoori paste*

Pre-prepared Rogan Josh paste*

Method

Start by washing the lentils thoroughly, in two or three changes of water, until it remains clear.  Check for little stones too!  Then put them in a pan and cover with water so that they are fully submerged and there is approximately 1 cm of water above them.  Bring the pan to the boil, then turn down the heat until the water is just simmering. Do not season the water, adding salt at this stage prevents the lentils (and any other pulses) from softening.  Simmer for approximately one and a half hours or until the lentils are soft with just a little ‘bite.’  If necessary add water as the pan water evaporates.  When the lentils are cooked to your taste, take the pan from the heat, drain it and set the lentils to one side.  If you intend to keep the cooked lentils for any length of time; when they’ve cooled, put them in a dish covered with clingfilm, in the fridge.

The next step is to make the marinade and marinate the salmon.  Making the marinade is relatively easy.  Add the tandoori paste, half of the freshly ground cilantro seeds and the chopped dried chilli, to the yoghurt, with just a little good, but not virgin olive oil – it is too strongly flavoured.  Mix the ingredients thoroughly and then coat the salmon fillets on both skin and top sides with it.  Put them in a preferably, glass, dish covered in clingfilm in the fridge.  I like to marinade mine for at least three hours, overnight is best if you have the time. 

The final step in preparing this dish is to make the spicy Rogan Josh mix, for the lentils.  Begin by “blitzing” the onion, the ginger and two cloves of garlic to a paste.  Put this paste into a frying pan with a little sunflower oil with a half teaspoonful of turmeric, stir well and add 30 mls or so of water.  Cook this mixture until all the water has evaporated and you see the paste frying, slightly, now add the Rogan Josh paste and the remaining ground coriander seeds.  Cook gently until all the ingredients combine and release a faint spicy aroma.  Finally add the lemon juice and cook for just enough time for the ingredients to blend, add salt to your taste and check for seasoning.  This mix is now ready to be added to the lentils.

Mix the Rogan Josh sauce into the drained lentils, stir gently over a low heat and loosen the mix with just a little water, if it is too stiff.  It should be loose but not “soupy.”

To cook the salmon, preheat the oven to 160 C.  Remove the clingfilm from the marinating dish and if the dish is ovenproof, put it on a lower middle shelf, uncovered, to cook for approximately 20 minutes or until the tandoori marinade begins to bubble and turn brown at the edges

To serve, put a generous helping of lentils on to a plate.  A soup plate is good, then set a fillet of salmon elegantly on top; dress the salmon with a spoonful or two of the cooked marinade and finally garnish with a sprinkling of chopped coriander leaves.

·        *I prefer “Patak’s” but any genuine Asian product should be fine

·        * I strongly suggest you use salmon fillets for this dish. The bones in cutlets are much too 

d    difficult to spot and remove