Saturday Night with Salmon in Cumin and Tomato/Asparagus Warm Salad

Take salmon fillets - not cutlets, cutlets blow. All that bone, for what?

Put fillets in a bowl with olive oil, ground black pepper and salt, lots of cumin powder.

Leave them mixed together while you feed the kids sausages and mashed potato. Just kidding. One of mine also had salmon. The others held out for ice cream and jelly cups.

When children have finally gone to bed, pour a glass of wine and do the following in quick succession:

1. Heat a fry pan, grill pan or barbeque* and put the salmon fillets in skin-side down. They should carry enough oil from the marinade, but add a little more if necessary.
2. Don't wash out the marinade bowl.
3. Add some thick-sliced Spanish (red) onion.
4. Roughly chop garlic and ginger; slice some asparagus spears into diagonal chunks; quarter or eighth some firm tomatoes. Mix all together in remaining marinade. I'm also on a Sumac kick so added some to the marinade. This was delicious but not essential.
5. By now the salmon should be firm and crispy on the skin side. Turn the fillets over and move to the sides of the pan.
6. Throw the tomato/asparagus mix into the centre of the pan and stir fry until the tomato skin has just started to soften but the pieces still have their shape.
7. Take everything out and serve with lime or lemon quarters.

We had ours with the leftover mashed potato, revived under the griller with a little olive oil on top so it crisped over and went fluffy underneath.

Serve with pretty much anything lighter than a shiraz, but the reisling we had was especially good.

mtc

Bec

* Barbeques and unattended children do not mix