| A beautiful Salmon - a delicious dish for everyone
Salmon has been a real favorite in my kitchen for past few years. As a result, we have used salmon in truly numerous ways - bengali, asian, grilled, baked,
broiled, shreaded, Italian, fillet etc. :)
So this one is more on the bengali cuisine side. I didn't think at first this recipe of my mom's mundane Kolkata fishes, will fit so nicely to an american salmon. But to my surprise and pleasure it did.
So here is what to do - and it is simple :)
First thing is to rub the defrosted salmon fillet with salt and turmeric. I then leave them for 10-15 minutes and you really don't need any more marination than that.
Traditionally, any bengali fish prep involves frying the pieces before putting them into gravy.
That is what I did in this case.
Salmon does not need a lot of oil to fry as she is an oil-rich fish herself.
So for 2 fillets I used about no more than 2 tablespoons of oil. I usully like mustard oil for any Bengali dish and so did I for this one.
However, if you dont stock this oil, canola is just fine.
Discard the water released from the marination and add the beauties to oil when heated.
One thing to keep in mind for frying fish is that the oil needs to be hot before you add the fishes to it.
If you accidentally before that, you will see the fishes sticking to the pan.
Use medium flame for heating the oil.
 A shortcut to this step will be to broil the fishes.
When I am frying fish that is to go into a gravy, I do a light fry. As long as you see the light brown on the sides and no pink - that is what you are going for,
Keep them aside, and you should still have good amount of oil left in the pan. If not add one more tablespoon for the next steps.
The fishes should look somewhere around this at this point.
 When the oil in the pan is heated (not over heated)
Add some crushed garlic - about 3-4 if you are garlic lover, otherwise 2.
Add chopped onion - half of a big ones for 2 fillets in the photo. I have seen even white onion works fine with this dish.
You can add chopped green chillies if everyone on your dinner table can handle it :)
 When the onions are translucent, add chopped tomato ( 1 whole).
Add salt.
When the tomato softens, add 1.5tbsp of coriandaer powder. I almost always take whole coriander seeds, roast them and grind them.
I added couple of whole green chillies at this point because the little one can't yet take the heat from chilies.
Add half a tbsp of sugar.
When you feel all the ingredients are mixed all together, little bit of oil starts to ooze, add the fillets back and cover for 2-3 minutes for the masala to coat them.
Then add a cup of warm water and bring the mixture to boil.
Taste salt after boiling it for 5 minutes. Adjust if needed.
Let the gravy boil for another 5-7minutes and simmer for another couple.
If you feel the gravy does not look too watery, your salmon is ready to serve. Else, cook it for another 5minutes. Check that gravy does not dry too much.
Note: if you like cilantro you can add chopped cilantro around the time of last couple minutes of cooking.
I like it with rice but go with your choice :)
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