Salmon with multi-cultural tomato sauce

First, a bit of an explanation.  I cook with a lot of salmon.  This blog has grown out of the habit of cooking with salmon with four ideas in mind:

     1.  an expression of creativity.
     2.  using what I have on hand.
     3.  using salmon for health reasons.
     4.  having a decent meal worthy of eating to break the monotony of my daily diet.

I have rather strict demands on my diet for health reasons.  I am on a very low fat diet and during the week I eat a very disciplined diet.  But one night a week I like to see what I can do when I kick up my heels.  Salmon is a staple that is very healthy, and I center many of my creative endeavors on salmon. But I strongly suspect that most of the recipes here can use any fish or even chicken.  At times, even beef or pork could be used.

This week I found some dried garlic chutney mix my wife bought for me on a trip a while ago.  It was hiding deep inside a basket of various spice mixtures and sauces we have collected over time.  It tasted like it needed some type of mixing but there were no directions on the package and I was dubious that simply mixing it with water would result in a delicious solution.  Oil would probably have been a workable solution but on a low fat diet that was not an option.  Instead I decided to use it basically as a spice mixture.

What fish doesn't excel with some type of citrus highlight?  And certainly garlic goes well with that flavor profile.  Citrus is not unknown to Indian cuisine either.  So I thought a loomi would be a good option though they are middle eastern, not Indian.  Loomis are dried whole limes.  They add both a sour and acrid flavor to the pot.  They should be pierced before being added to a pot so the sauce can flow in and out of the lime to add the flavors.  Pressing the loomi with a spoon in the pot several times during the simmering process will bring more flavor out of the lime than simply letting it sit there and simmer.

The brown sugar was added as a substitution for an Indian ingredient called jaggery which can be approximated using brown sugar.  The smoked paprika was used to add a base, or broader taste to the sauce.

The richness of the salmon added a lot to the sauce which I was counting on during the cooking process.  Chicken might not be so effective in this experiment but beef and pork would do well in this dish, I think.  Even adding some beef bullion might have broadened this dish favorably.

Ingredients:
Canned diced tomatoes
Dried Garlic Chutney
Loom
Brown Sugar
Smoked Paprika
Salmon
Pasta


Place the tomatoes, garlic chutney and loomi in a sauce pot and simmer, pressing the loom on the side of the pot several times during the cooking process.  Add the light brown sugar and smoked paprika to taste and to correct the acidity and spiciness of the sauce.  Add salt to taste.  Once the sauce is prepared place a salmon fillet, skin side down in to the pot, cover and simmer for 7 1/2 minutes.  Turn the salmon and remove the skin.  Spoon the sauce on top of the fillet, cover and simmer for another 7 1/2 minutes.

While the fish is cooking, prepare the pasta and drain and place on a plate.  Spoon the salmon and sauce onto the plate and serve.

Crtitique:  I used a rather large amount of tomatoes and ended up with more sauce than I needed.  The Garlic Chutney was more spicy than flavorful and I suspect I will be dispensing of it as a future ingredient.  The dish was quite enjoyable overall but the dried garlic chutney was more of a wild card that a pivotal ingredients.

This would be a good dish to rework without the dried garlic chutney and with other ingredients to take its place.