Pink Salmon scrambled with sun dried tomatoes and a hot tomato sauce..


I rarely buy tinned products but some oily fish packed in tin or foil packaging is always welcome. Foil packaged tuna, Salmon or Sardines would be so much better than the tins I usually get on the shelves. I am still to locate a store where foil packed fish is available.

Normally we try and find fresh or frozen fish and make curries or fries with them as that is the way we both learnt eating fish. Yes, both of us started eating fish together and those Bengali style curries and Punjabi style fries, grills or tikkas were the first things to be tried. Later the tinned varieties of some imported fish were tried and incorporated in our fish repertoire. It was good that we didn't try the tinned versions first as the fishy smell when you open the can isn't something I like till date. And that is the reason I like to cook the tinned fish most of the times.

Just a flash cooking with some interesting seasonings works wonders to the packaged Salmon or tuna, or even Sardines. I have a lot of pictures of how I cook these tinned fish, somehow when I come to post something, the more colorful veggie dishes find their way first to the blog. Proves that I am a vegetarian first,  love all my vegetables in salads or stir fries or curries. Souped up too.

So this tin was a John West Pink Salmon. Packed without salt. So it was just a few fillet with a watery fluid and a few oily droplets that smelled a bit unpleasant. As was expected.

And I was prepared.


My sun dried Cherie tomatoes (home grown and dried) were already eager to give the pink salmon company. Along with a spicy hot relish I made to go with Hainanese Chicken and rice some time back.

I tell you that hot relish is being made every now and then in my kitchen.

ingredients...
(serves 2-4 depending on what meal it goes with, cooking time 5 minutes)

John West Pink Salmon 210 gm pack
sun dried Cherie tomatoes or any sun dried tomatoes 2/3 cup
finely chopped garlic 1 tsp
(If the sun dried tomatoes are packed in Olive oil, skip the oil in the ingredient list here)
hot tomato relish/dipping sauce* (recipe below) 2 tbsp
sesame oil (or olive oil) 2 tsp

hot tomato relish recipe..
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp tabasco sauce
3 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 inch piece of ginger chopped
4-5 cloves of garlic
1 whole red chilly broken
1 tsp white vinegar

Everything blended together in a processor to make a smooth sauce.



procedure...

Heat the oil in a pan and tip in the chopped garlic and let it sizzle for a few seconds. Add the sun dried Cherie tomatoes and fry them till they slightly change color. Not more than a minute.

If using oil packed sun dried tomatoes, put the oil, tomatoes and chopped garlic all at once in the pan and fry till they start sizzling.

Add the hot tomato sauce and then tip in the fish directly from the tin.

Lightly flake the fish in the pan while cooking the mix. The fish is packed in a watery fluid and that helps the tomato sauce to get diluted and then soaked back into the fish.

The mixture has to be cooked for just a couple of minutes. May be a couple more if you want this dish to be completely dry.

Serve hot or at room temperature. It makes a nice sandwich filling when dried a bit into the pan.

This time we had it with chapatis for dinner and the leftovers with plain boiled rice the next day for lunch.

It goes very well with an Indian meal.


Many of us keep some tinned fish for quick meals when pressed for time or when it has been a long time without having some nice fish steak and you are craving for some fish.

This lovely bowl did just that for us.

Any flaked fish can be cooked like this as it's a nice way to serve kids or people who have just started eating fish and can't handle the fine bones. If making this dish using a fresh fish, steam or boil or poach the fish steaks first and then remove the bones when it cools down. Then proceed with this recipe and your flavorful fish scramble is ready to serve.

Simple recipes that taste great are the ones that become everyday family recipes. This one is just that kind.

Try and see yourself...

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