Garlic Salmon and Haddock

You got to say 'yes' to all the answers before you get to the recipe. It isn't for the fain hearted. 

Here we go with the questions

1. Do you like spicy food?

2. Are you open to experiments?

3. Are you daring to try flavors mixed across cuisine, mercilessly?

4. Do you love garlic?

5. Finally..this is very important..are you up for baking fish with mustard oil?

Okay okay...the last question sort of gave away today's recipe. You guessed right. I ended up doing, what no body has yet attempted (I hope). Baking fish with mustard oil. 

Now, you may not be familiar with mustard oil. So let me take the joy of introducing it to you.

As the name suggests its pressed out of mustard seed. Its deep golden in color. Almost like liquid gold. It has the consistency of warm honey. So when you pour it, you get a texture. And it tastes like mustard. Spicy, sharp mustard. Much like wasabi. And it smells pungent. Strong and full bodied. Sounds delightful dosen't it? And in parts of India, especially from where I come, mustard oil is the cooking medium for fish. People use it to deep fry fish. nfact, mustard is a spice that would automatically be delegated to fish. I, however use mustard in everything. And part of that is culinary culture there, but my guess is, unlike olive oil or vegetable oil, it has a pungent flavor. And that gets somewhat diluted when you expose to high heat. That is my understanding. Not ncessarily full proof. But makes sense. Anyways I like my fish raw or slightly baked with lime. I am not much into redefining the awesome flavor of fish.

But I am a foodie hippie. 'Pay no attention to lill me' :) :).

But you know, R does not like that. And I kind of feel selfish just making fish so that I get to eat the majority. R loves fish with mustard oil. Really deep fried.

So we struck a deal last week. We decided to make salmon-- partly because youcan't go wrong with salmon--and use all our favorite spices and bake it with a drizzle of mustard oil. R was real skeptical about baking with mustard oil. But I knew that baking at high heat would be just as good and as perfect with mustard oil as with any other oil. Te high heat will take off the edge of the oil and leave the fragrance behind. In theory it should work great. Did it work?

So we mixed all the spices we liked, threw in all the veggies we liked in a hige bake tray. Drizzled it with garlic and mustard oil. You hear that. Drizzzlllled it with garlic. How much garlic would that have to be ? :)

And voila...That was the best spicy salmon dish ever :) I mean we kind of made sure of that. Didn't we?

So just to lure you into it, here is the fish from the devil. Spicy, tangy, golden, red...all the naugty colors and flavors.

Ingredients:

Your love and your choice :) :)

to guide you a little better,

Fish: I like salmon. But this would be good with haddock as well. 1lb of it. cut into big squares

1 small red onion. Sliced

Half a cup of tomato. Broadly cubed

2-3 cloves of garlic. Minced. You can add some more if you are as garlic crazy as me and R

Spice blend: 1 tsf coriander

                     1 tsp cumin

                     1 tsp of smoked or sweet paprika. The sweet will balance the heat

                     A pinch of turmeric. Optional

Oil: 2 tbsf of mustard oil. But feel free to use the ever trusted veg oil, corn oil or olive oil. :) 

 Salt and pepper to taste

Juice of half a lemon

Just bake buddies!

Take a baking tray. Place  the fish, onions and tomatoes. Do not crowd them. Toss with the spice blend, garlic and the oil you are choosing. Season with salt and pepper. Prheat oven to 450F for no less than 12 mins. Pop the tray in the oven. Let it be there for 20 mins.  Tak eit out and sprinkle the lemon juice all over it. 

You are done!! It does not get more experimental than this. And it does not get spicy flavored than this. And its not for the faint hearted. Have it dry dry red wine. And let the devil do what it wan't s to your senses and palate.

Happy eating and healthy living!