As a kid, I would hear my mom say how her Bengali friends rave about mustard while her friends from other parts of India found the pungency hard to handle. As a mustard lover myself, I have always wanted to experiment this ingredient on different taste palates. Last holiday season, when we had some non-Indian friends over for dinner, I decided to take this chance.
Before this undertaking, I cautioned myself a bit. First, I selected a salmon, a well-known fish in the US. I thought this would put my guests at ease and not create a fear of the unknown. Secondly, I decided to strain out the husks from my mustard paste -- the husks impart more pungency and cause a bitter taste. Lastly, I decided to omit mustard oil which is commonly used in Bengali cooking in fish recipes.
Ingredients:
Salmon – filet vacuum packs from Whole foods
Onion seeds (a pinch) - optional
Black mustard seeds – half cup
Green chillies – 8-10
Turmeric – 2 tsp
Olive oil – to pan fry the fish and additional 3tbsp
Cilantro for garnish
Salt to taste
I began by soaking the mustard seeds in water and wet grinding the seeds along with salt, water, 6 chillies, and 0.5tsp of turmeric. The consistency was that of a smooth paste with husks. I mixed this paste with water only to decant the water later. How I love applying physics to my recipes!
After patting the salmon fillet dry and rubbing some salt and turmeric to the fish, I pan fried both sides to ensure a crispy outer crust was developed but the inside of the fish remained soft. In about 3tsp of oil, I added the onion seeds , the remaining green chillies (slit in halves) , 0.5 tsp of turmeric and added the decanted water from the mustard paste. When the sauce was simmering, I poured this over the salmon in a baking dish, covered it and baked the fish in the sauce at 350F for about 20 minutes.
Voila fish was ready for dinner – garnished it in style with cilantro. My guests were a bit apprehensive in the beginning but guess what, this dish did become the star of the dinner! So all you people who are scared of mustard, I tell ya: mustard and fish make a great combination, so go ahead and experiment! ;-)
