Heart Healthy - Wild Salmon Curry

Salmon well known for it's health benefits is an incredible fish, different from most of the other fish you might know of. Most of the world's fish either live in fresh or salt water, but salmon fish during the course of their life, live in both, salt & fresh water habitats.They spawn in fresh water where the eggs hatch, live in the streams for 1-3 years then start their journey to open oceans, travels thousands of miles throughout their life cycle and finally return to the very location where they were born to spawn & die, isn't it amazing.

Salmon is low in calories and saturated fats, yet high in protein and considered very nutritional as it contains heart healthy omega-3 fatty acids. And omega-3's are also called essential fatty acids as they are essential for human health but because they can not be made by the human body so they must be obtained from the various foods.Salmon is considered heart healthy fish not only because of the presence of omega-3's in it but mainly because of it's great ratio of omega-3's to omega-6's. To get more information about balancing omega-3 & omega-6 essential fatty acids click here.

There are many species of salmon, fresh wild caught salmon is usually in season from early summer to late fall though farm raised is available through out the year or you can also find frozen salmon in the grocery stores. You can also refer here to get some more information about how to choose fresh fish.

The main difference between farm raised & wild caught is in terms of contamination and because of that it's recommended that adults should eat no more than 1 meal per month if it is farm raised(more info). Another difference between farm raised & wild caught is in terms of what food do these salmon eat, because that results in the amount of omega-3's in them. Wild salmon eats varied diet from the sea(salmon are carnivores : they eat no plants at all) hence rich in omega-3's & they travel a lot which makes it lean protein. Where as farm raised fish is fattier because of it's diet based up on wheat & soybean(not a good source of omega-3's), which results in less omega-3 fatty acids in farm raised salmon. So, try to choose wild caught whenever you can.

Health benefits of wild salmon :

• good source of omega-3's
• reduce inflammation in bodies
• good source of vitamin D, B6 & B12
• lower triglycerides
• help prevent & control high blood pressure
• protection against heart attack & other heart diseases
• special cardiovascular protection for postmenopausal women with diabetes

Now to the recipe, it's very simple & can be prepared within 15-20 minutes.

Ingredients :

• 10 0z. cleaned salmon(I use frozen wild caught Keta salmon from pacific waters)
• 1 medium size onion
• 1 large tomato
• 3-4 garlic cloves
• 1 inch piece of fresh ginger
• 3-4 green chillies
• 2 spoon plain yogurt or home made dahi
• salt as per taste
• 1 tsp. coriander(dhania) powder
• 1 tsp. turmeric(haldi)
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp. mustard seeds
• 1 tsp. garam masala( indian hot spice mix)
• fresh cilantro(coriander) for garnish
• little oil(preferably evoo)

Method :

1. Wash & cut salmon into 4 pieces. Apply very little oil, salt & 2-3 pinches of turmeric. keep aside.
2. Chop ginger, garlic, onion, tomatoes and chillies. Heat little oil in a heavy bottom pan add mustard seeds when splutter add garlic, cook it a little bit. Now add onion, cook them for around 5 minutes or so then add ginger followed by all the dry spices.
3. Mix them & add yogurt. When mixture starts to get dry & kind of leave oil on the sides(that is when the yogurt is cooked & absorbed into the masala mix/curry) add green chillies & tomatoes. Cooking gravy should not take more than 10-12 minutes.
4. In the meantime heat non-stick pan, using very little oil saute the salmon pieces for 2-3 min. on each side(cook only half way).
5. Once the masala/curry is cooked, grind it & put it back in the pan. Add no more than one cup of water, also add half cooked fish to it. Let it boil & then reduce the gas and let it simmer for 5-7 minutes. Check for the fish using a fork, if it's flaky it's done.
6. Garnish it with freshly chopped cilantro before serving. Can be served with roti/naan or rice.

Note : Cooking time of fish totally depends upon the thickness of the fish.
Sending this over to Yasmeen's Health Nut Challenge 3 : Healing foods.