Finally, I made the best tasting salmon totally my way…
One fish that I cannot handle much is salmon, on the other hand my husband loves it a lot. In fact, most North Americans love this fish and is a popular fish in American/European cuisine. I’ve had salmon at many restaurants, none of them seemed to impress my taste buds. For me, when it comes to fish dishes, I like it extra spicy and flavorful. May be because I grew up in Kerala and the fish dishes there are amazingly delicious and I expect the same when I’ve fish at other restaurants. However, I adore Cajun style fish dishes especially gumbos and jambalayas as it’s very flavorful and I can feel the taste of the fish.
This morning I shopped at the Asian supermarket, needless to say this store always amazes me. All kinds of ingredients under the sun is found in this store from veggies to fish. I wonder how they get all those veggies which are common in my hometown and they are kept very fresh. This time I came across pandan leaves which is known as Biryanikaitha or Ramba leaves in Kerala. This leaf is mostly used for its flavor and is added while making biryani. This is a tropical plant and so widely used in South Indian and Asian cooking. This pant is always seen in my mom’s and grand mom’s veggie garden, in fact most houses in Kerala have this pant. It’s quite easy to grow and it grows like a weed. Here in North America, whenever I see any ingredients that I grew up seeing or having, I get so excited and it brings back a lot of good food memories. So when I saw pandan leaves at the store, it put a huge smile on my face and of course I grabbed it right away. If you are wondering what’s pandan leaves, here is a picture of it:
It’s been a while since I made any exciting fish dishes, so I bought a few variety of fish. Usually I never go near to Salmon, but this time I was determined enough to make myself like salmon. I grabbed a couple of salmon steaks. After reaching home, I started to make lunch. Salmon was my pick, I first thought of baking it then went with pan frying it. I wanted to make it very flavorful so I marinated the salmon with some spices and pan fried it in coconut oil. Coconut oil enhances the flavor of any dish, especially fish dishes. In Kerala cooking, coconut oil is one unavoidable ingredient, almost all dishes are cooked using this oil. To enhance the flavor more, I added pandan leaves and curry leaves to the oil while pan frying the fish.
Finally, yes finally I made salmon in the most delicious way possible. This pan fried salmon beats all the other salmon dishes that I’ve tried before. My husband agreed with this too. I served this with tapioca and coconut stir fry and for dipping I made a spicy and tangy sauce. In Kerala, “Fish and Tapioca” or “Meen and Kappa” is one dish which makes all the non-veggies go wild. I admire Kerala style fish cooking, none of the other cuisine can possibly beat it!
Pan Fried Salmon in Coconut Oil
Ingredients:
- Salmon- 2 large steaks
For marination:
- Ginger-Garlic paste- 2 tsp
- Chili powder- 2 tsp
- Ground pepper- 1/2 tsp
- Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
- Garam Masala- 1 tsp
- Ground Cumin- 1/2 tsp
- Lemon juice- 1 1/2 tbsp
- Salt- 1/2 tsp
For Pan frying:
- Coconut Oil- 3-4 tbsp
- Pandan leaves, chopped- 2 handful
- Curry leaves- 3 sprigs
Instruction
- Marinate the salmon steaks with the above mentioned “for marination ingredients” and keep aside for 30 minutes or longer the better.
- Heat a non-stick fry pan over medium heat, add coconut oil.
- Add pandan leaves and curry leaves to the oil.
- Place the salmon over the oil and cook till the bottom side turn light golden in color.
- Gently flip it over and let the other side cook till golden in color too.
- Flip again and cook till both sides get browned.
- If there is not much oil, add little more to prevent the fish from sticking to the pan.
- Transfer to a paper towel, let it absorb the oil.
- Serve in a plate topped with the fried pandan and curry leaves over it.
- This goes really really well with tapioca in ground coconut. This time I made stir fried tapioca along with coconut and also made an easy spicy and tangy sauce for dipping it. I’ll post the recipe soon.
Tips:
- Please try to use coconut oil for better taste, however you could use olive oil or vegetable oil too.
- Add curry leaves and pandan leaves for a nice aroma.
- Salmon- 2 large steaks
- Ginger-Garlic paste- 2 tsp
- Chili powder- 2 tsp
- Ground pepper- ½ tsp
- Turmeric powder- ¼ tsp
- Garam Masala- 1 tsp
- Ground Cumin- ½ tsp
- Lemon juice- 1½ tbsp
- Salt- ½ tsp
- Coconut Oil- 3-4 tbsp
- Pandan leaves, chopped- 2 handful
- Curry leaves- 3 sprigs
- Marinate the salmon steaks with the above mentioned "for marination ingredients" and keep aside for 30 minutes or longer the better.
- Heat a non-stick fry pan over medium heat, add coconut oil.
- Add pandan leaves and curry leaves to the oil.
- Place the salmon over the oil and cook till the bottom side turn light golden in color.
- Gently flip it over and let the other side cook till golden in color too.
- Flip again and cook till both sides get browned.
- If there is not much oil, add little more to prevent the fish from sticking to the pan.
- Transfer to a paper towel, let it absorb the oil.
- Serve in a plate topped with the fried pandan and curry leaves over it.
- This goes really really well with tapioca in ground coconut.This time I made stir fried tapioca along with coconut and also made an easy spicy and tangy sauce for dipping it. I'll post the recipe soon.
Add curry leaves and pandan leaves for a nice aroma.
