Tuesday 9 June 2009

Salmon Tikka and Homemade Naan

Who doesn't love a curry?! I've often made Thai fish curries in the past, but until recently had never really considered using salmon (only using white fish in the past) and I'd also never really tried an Indian-style curry instead of the Thai flavours. But my new Jamie Oliver book (Jamie's Ministry of Food) has a great recipe for a quick salmon curry (actually he calls it Salmon Stirfry). The original recipe calls for tandoori paste, and you could by all means use this, but I made it first with tikka masala paste and have found I prefer it that way (incidentally, Jamie recommends using Patak's curry pastes and that's what I use too. I really like the tikka paste although the tandoori one is scarily pink - quite fluro actually - and I'm not really a huge fan of unnatural food colouring in my dinners...)

This recipe can quite easily be served with plain, steamed rice but it's also lovely with naan bread. I've included my favourite naan recipe here too.

Jamie Oliver's Salmon Curry (I'm sure he won't mind me sharing - in the book it asks that you share the recipes with people...)

Serves 2

350g salmon fillet, skin off and bones removed
1 clove of garlic
thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled
1 fresh red chilli
bunch of coriander
oil
1 heaped tbsp Patak's tikka masala (or tandoori) curry paste
1 handful mangetout (or other similarly sized green vege)
1/2 400ml tin coconut milk
handful of beansprouts

Cut salmon into chunks (about 2cm). Finely chop the garlic, ginger and chilli. Remove the stalks from the coriander and finely chop stalks, setting leaves aside for later.
Heat oil in wok or frypan. Add ginger, garlic, most of the chilli and the coriander stalks. Stirfry 30 secs then add the curry paste and stirfry another 30 secs. Add salmon and mangetout, cook for a minute or so and then add the coconut milk. Cook another minute. Taste and season if you think it needs it (I sometimes add a wee touch of sugar and salt).
Serve with rice and/or naan, sprinkled with beansprouts and the remaining chilli and coriander leaves.

Naan Bread
7g active dried yeast (that's how much is in one of those little sachets of instant yeast)
235ml warm water
50g white sugar
45ml milk
1 egg, beaten
10 g salt
615g bread flour (an oddly specific quantity!)
1 clove of crushed garlic (optional)
55g melted butter or ghee

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water and let stand (if you are using the instant sachets you don't need to leave it to stand). Stir in sugar, milk, egg, salt and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 6-8 mins on a lightly floured surface or until smooth. Place dough in well-oiled bowl, cover with damp cloth and set aside to rise. Let rise 1 hour or until it has doubled in size.

Punch dough down, knead in garlic. Pinch off small handfuls of dough about golf-ball sized. Roll into balls, place on tray and allow to rise until doubled in size about 30 mins (I actually don't do this extra rise...or rather, I forgot last time I made them and it was still great!)

Preheat grill to hottest temp with an oven tray underneath (heavy oven tray like a roasting pan)

Roll one ball out into naan shape or circle. Lightly oil or butter dough. Place under grill for 2-3 mins or until puffy and lightly browned. Turn and brush other side with oil/butter/ghee and cook until browned (I sometimes only cook one side because I prefer them softer rather than crunchy, but it's really up to you).

Keep warm in tin foil while cooking the remaining naans.

The dough also freezes well, so if you find it's a huge quantity for 2 people (which it is, although we are usually able to scoff quite a few!) you can freeze the rest for next time.

Enjoy!!

(oh, also, I have never found that naan bread dough - whatever recipe - rises very well. I don't know why, maybe it's too heavy/rich, but it doesn't seem to matter or affect the final product. So don't be peeved if it doesn't rise to double its size)

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