We love all kinds of Sea Food. Curries, Fried, Grilled, any which way we love them. This dish makes a great option if you are on a diet, or looking for low carb options or following keto recipes. This is a quick recipe for lunch and a super nutritious one too.
I used Frozen cod but if you have fresh Cod available, that would be great. My boys love fish and grilled veggies or just cold salads on the side of a pan fried fish. These kind of dishes are easy, scrumptious, fits the budget, healthy and delicious. This is a perfect recipe when you are running short on time.
I use basic spices like Red chili flakes, Garlic powder, Onion powder, White pepper powder and Tandoori masala. I also added some dry parsley for flavor. You can always mix and match and use the spices you like. I personally don’t like much of cinnamon or Red chili powder on cod fish. I also feel that Black pepper makes it a little bitter so I prefer white pepper powder. Add a little Lemon juice and the marination is just perfect.
I grill or saute the bell peppers and Asparagus in the same pan as the fish once i am done cooking the fish. I feel it adds a lot of flavor from the fish and the spices to the vegetables. This is a great dish if you want to involve your budding teenagers and teach them easy and quick dishes.
The family that loves fish, finds each and every way possible to get their fish on their dish….Yeah!!! Please ignore my not so funny sense of humor rhyming the words…LOLzzz. My boys love the fish rolls or wraps for school. Making Salmon Tortilla roll is one of their favorite school lunches.
The Salmon needs to be lightly marinated and can be pan fried till crunchy. The marination is simple with garlic powder, black pepper, turmeric [optional, I prefer it], salt, lemon juice and dry parsley. I like my marinade to be simple, since Salmon has a very strong itself. The light marinade helps Salmon have its own flavor and the other spices help enhance it more.
I have people always question me as to why I never try making my Salmon like my other recipes for Indian style fish fry. Believe it or not, just like fishes come in different flavors, adding same spices to 2 different fishes while makes one taste amazingly delicious, makes the other one lose its flavor. Fishes like Mackerel have a very strong fishy flavor. Adding strong spices to a Mackerel and deep frying it after rolling it in refined flour makes it a scrumptious appetizer, where as if I try the same style of cooking on Salmon, which also has a very strong fishy taste would not taste that good. I have been to a few restaurants that serve Salmon cooking it like a fritter/ Pakoda or rolling salmon fillet in flour and serve it as a patty for Burger. I strongly felt that Salmon in such styles loses its taste. Salmon has a wonderful outer texture that makes it super crunchy when you shallow fry it and its best this way.
I always throw in some veggies like shredded cabbage, or chopped lettuce with sliced Onions and sliced tomatoes. Pair the crispy Salmon with the fresh and chopped veggies and sauces makes it flavorful and if you are making them for your kids, its always a great way to sneak in those veggies.
I added corn, that I had boiled and then saute’ed them till slightly crispy. My corn kernels were fresh. I took them off the cob after boiling the corn. It just gets a little easier to get the kernels off. You can always simply saute’e them in a pan by adding a tsp of butter/oil. You can also add a little garlic powder and chili flakes and add that zing to it.
Sauce can always be changed according to your taste. I added the mayo-garlic sauce and hot sauce, but I think mustard sauce or green chili sauce would be good too.
Salmon is an all time favorite for us. Any day, any way, Salmon on the plate not just looks appealing but also is very healthy and tastes absolutely delicious. Sunday lunch/brunch made with Salmon is a Parveez family special. Not just loved but also a favorite for our friends.
Its amazing how my friends who drop in on weekends request a good Salmon fajita and I very happily make it for them. Salmon is easy to make, marination doesn’t need to be for too long and if you use fresh fish, the flavors come out even more amazing.
I serve my fajita with and without tortillas. Many times people find tortillas to be a must with their fajita, but I kind of take it easy and a lot of times make my fajita without tortillas too. This time I made the tortillas at home, but store bought are almost as good and can be substituted with homemade, except the freshness and preservative free food cannot be substituted.
Rice and beans with grilled Salmon make an excellent accompaniment and so does grilled veggies and sour cream. Rice and beans can be eaten separately with the Salmon too, without adding them to the tortilla. I also like some cheese and raw onions, but that’s always a personal choice.
A little bit of guacamole adds a lot of flavor. Avocado adds a little softness and buttery flavor to the fajita and the crunch of Salmon and veggies with the buttery guacamole is very fancy together. I usually add green chilies and tomato to avocado to make my guacamole so its little bit on the spicier side, but you can always make it a little bland or less spicy.
When you live in a country far away from home, you tend to
dry more of different cuisines in order to blend in. Ohh yes! You read that
right. We as Indians try our level best to try and blend in sending our
wonderful taste buds on a toss. See, believe it or not, Indian cuisine is one
of the most wonderful cuisines you can come across. So many varieties of food
offered by one country where the food palette from one state to another differs
as much as countries in Europe.
Now, I don’t mean to look down upon other cuisines but I do
feel very proud of my ethnicity. Having tried so many different spices, oils,
vegetables is an experience of its own. So, coming back to living in America,
we tend to please people around us and not or taste buds. Indian food with spices
is actually a very healthy option for guilt free food. Leaving that we indulge
in butter and cheese based cuisines coz that satisfies the masses and we want
to be one of those. But for those of us, who yearn for meals with similar
taste, Italian and Mexican food come the closest.
Being a Muslim and eating only halal, our best bet for food
is either vegetarian or seafood. Also, not trying food made by people who do
not stick to the rules of a cuisine and make it in a fusion way is not my cup
of tea. So, people like me, who want try that authentic Mexican chicken rice
bowl from their favorite Mexican restaurant, eat fish and try to cook same
flavors with chicken at home. I tried my level best to stick to Mexican flavors
to get the authentic taste. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
After my successful experiments with chhole palak and Palak daal, I started working on more recipes and ways to feed greens to my little monsters. After all, no one can have too much of greens and none of us moms ever get tired of feeding healthy to our kids, in fact we never get tired of feeding/ over feeding our children. But, between all those over fed meals are times when we realize that they need to eat healthier and better and we work more towards nourishing their body.
My boys are pretty picky and not great fans of veggies. Basically, if they see no chicken/meat on the dining table, they feel their mom has enjoyed a free day or wasn’t really in a mood to cook…LOLzzz . I learnt one art pretty quick as a mother and that was that if you want your kids to eat veggies, you should not keep a substitute on the table and definitely, any kind of bribe doesn’t give a very good example. Like, I never promise them ice cream after dinner. What I do is, make a promise to cook anything they want for school lunch the next day. Our dinners mostly has these veggies, one reason being that dinners should be light and secondly, that’s the only meal we eat together as family. So, feeding vegetables that time cuts down my stress as Mr. Parveez handles the situation better.
Now, for kids who find it hard to gulp down veggies, its even more important to make dishes that look and taste great. Hence, the experiments and varieties. Your health is your most prize possession and so is the health of your family. Studies suggest that 80% of your health is from the food that you consume so, let that food be freshly cooked without preservatives from the “freezer aisle” of your grocery store or your favorite restaurant. These recipes are simple, quick and nutritious and so delicious that they will be a favorite in your family as much as they are in mine.
Chicken sizzler is just such a super amazingly happy dish. I feel your hunger just grows by a 200% , seeing that sauce sizzle on that hot iron plate and the sizzling sound is so very pleasing.
Sizzler is best with boneless chicken or fish served with boiled rice and your choice of vegetables. I love the sizzlers in India, the spicy, smoky flavors at our favorite joint is just like a dream come true for people like us, who are so far away and that we don’t get halal sizzlers in USA, or at least not around us. So, for people like us, we invent our own.
So, there is a very sweet story to share as well. Mr. Parveez saw me longing for sizzler and bought me these wonderful iron sizzler pans and they were lying in my pantry closet waiting to be inaugurated. So, finally one day, while kids were at school and Mr. Parveez was working from home and I decided to test my gift. Usually, I always prefer making new things in my own time and keeping it a surprise and once I was done making it, the look on Mr. Parveez’s face is hard to express in words. I do have a picture of him but, he would not allow me to post it here …LOLzzz. It will always be treasured in my personal collection.
