Seared Salmon on Baba Ganoush

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Salmon became a favourite of mine in the 80’s when, working in an office in the city for a company that still had a staff canteen, the specialty was a salmon salad. Probably inspired by my exploration of vegetarian food and cooking, the salad was the only thing on the menu that didn’t include deep fried chips and/or meat. I grew to love the dam things and ordered it every day for lunch. The canteen lady, Carmel, served it beautifully, pressing the John West salmon onto the plate first and arranging the lettuce, beetroot, cheese, Bread and butter cucumber slices and tomatoes around it. The condiments included mayo, which I piled high, still not having any real clue about salad dressings and their joys. A delight and really, a very healthy lunch to be eating regularly.

I would go on to recreate that dish at home and still crave it with monotonous regularity, to this day. It’s also a pantry staple kind of dish with most of the ingredients being in cans that you can have on hand. It’s up there with my need for hummus, Tabouli and Baba Ganoush. Oh dear. Progressing onto other forms of salmon over the years, I discovered the simple pleasure of a fresh piece of salmon seared in butter and doused in lemon juice and served on a bed of baby spinach could satisfy my appetite quite nicely. Restaurants during the 80’s started coming up with some hereto never experienced dishes like seared salmon. I seem to recall it was horribly expensive but so exotic as I stumbled by way around vegetarianism. It wasn’t easy as fish was probably the only non-meat dish you could order in a restaurant in those days. Vegetables were still to reach any form of validity as a main meal in Australia let alone, Organic. Hence, my interest in middle eastern food, which was largely vegetable based. And, even though I didn’t realise it, the amazing health benefits of the humble chick pea were unfolding before me. The tang of middle eastern food pairs magnificently with the oiliness of the salmon with all it’s lemon juice in the dressings.

You can buy the most beautiful frozen fillets of salmon now, leave them frozen until you’re ready to cook them. Add a salad and some baba ganoush and pine nuts and dinner is served.

Yield: 2 number of servings

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Prep Time: 30 minutes

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Total Time: 60 minutes prep + cook time

Ingredients

Stuff to Get Salmon Fillets | 2 Baba Ganoush | 1 cup (see my recipe) Coconut oil | 1/4 cup Baby Spinach | 1 cup Pinenuts | 1/2 cup, roasted Carrots | ½ carrot, thinly sliced Shallots | 2, finely sliced Honey | ¼ cup Butter | 100 grams Salt and Pepper | to taste Lemon Juice | 1 small lemon

Directions

Use a pastry brush to “paint” some baba ganoush onto a large plate. Set aside. Melt the butter in a large skillet and place the salmon, skin side down, in the pan to fry until the skin in crispy. About 5 minutes. Then flip it over for 2 more minutes and douse with lemon juice just before serving.

Nestle the salmon on top of the baba ganoush and garnish with pinenuts and baby spinach. I use a potato peeler to thinly slice a carrot and drop those into the hot butter while I serve up the salmon. These make a nice extra side dish on the plate.

Special Diet Information

Gluten free. Diabetic appropriate friendly.

#Babaganoush