Salmon & Spinach Pulao

Hello, boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun. If Salman Khan were a fish, would his fish name be Salmon Khan? Probably not. But then again.. who knows?

When I was little, I spent a lot of time at the home of my best friend, Parsi Drama Queen. We'd play trump cards, video games (Contra ftw!), watch movies, he'd cook, I'd eat, and then we'd go back to playing. Parsi Drama Queen had (and still has) a penchant for cats. Over the years he has played mother to several kittens, and oddly enough, a lot of them have had a letter of the alphabet on their person. I distinctly remember a cat with a 'T' and another with a 'V' on its forehead (no he did not name the V-cat after me). Another thing Parsi Drama Queen liked when we were young was water. He loved the rain and most times when it was raining heavily he could be found outside in his house running around in his kasti and underwear with a bottle and plastic bags, trying to catch fish. The way our housing society was designed, the section he lived in was separated from the rest of the complex by a little road, and way back in the '90s, when there weren't as many buildings around, there used to be a pond of sorts behind the boundary wall of his section. When it rained heavily, the pond would overflow and water would get in through a little grate at the base of the wall and flood the entire walkway in about ankle-deep water. While it was inconvenient for the adults, for us kids, it was like a splashing pool and we'd spend hours playing in the water, trying to get tadpole like fish through the mouth of our flimsy plastic bottles so we could keep them as pets. One time, Parsi Drama Queen had a cold and was not allowed to play in the rain, so he sat home with T-cat and sulked in protest. It was on this day, that a fairly large catfish managed to get through the grate and ended up stranding itself in the corner of the storm drain. As it lay there, contemplating its life decisions and the series of unfortunate events that resulted in it ending up in the only dry bit of land around, I happened to spot it, fished it out, and marched over to Parsi Drama Queen's house with it as an offering to T-cat in the hopes that it would bring an end to his sulking. His eyes lit up as he saw me coming, and more so when he saw the fish, but his glee quickly faded as T-cat took one look at the fish and flounced away completely disinterested. It was only then that we noticed that the fish was still 'breathing', and so I returned it to its storm drain (in the water this time) and it continued its adventure to drains previously unexplored.

This recipe, does not require you to go fishing in storm drains in your underwear (although more power to you if you want to), but will still leave you with the same sense of accomplishment once its finished.

For my Salmon & Spinach Pulao, you will need the following:

Salmon	300 gm (I usually take the skin off)
Spinach	250 gm
Rice	3 cups
Onions	2 medium
Tomatoes	2 medium
Green chillies	3
Cardamom pods	4
Cloves	4
Bayleaf	1
Coriander powder	2-3 tsp
Red chilli powder	3 tsp
Jeera (cumin) powder	2 tsp
Garam masala	2 tsp
Biryani masala	2-3 tsp (optional)
Ginger garlic paste	1-2 tsp
Lemon	1
Peppercorns	small handful
Salt	to taste
Oil

Prep:

1. Slice the onions.
2. Chop the chillies.
3. Chop the tomatoes.
4. Wash and roughly chop the spinach.
5. Rinse the rice with cold water 3-4 times.

Method:

1. Turn on the gas.
2. Bung a pan/kadhai on.
3. Splash in some oil.
4. Count to 20.
5. Float in the bayleaf.
6. Pop in the cardamom pods.
7. Drop in the cloves.
8. Bounce in the peppercorns.
9. Cook for a minute until the oil gets perfumed with the whole spices.
10. Slide in the onions.
11. Add in the chillies.
12. Cook until the onions are translucent.
13. Put in the ginger garlic paste.
14. Avoid the spatter as the wet paste hits the hot oil.
15. Cook until slightly brown.
16. Add in the coriander powder, cumin powder, red chilli powder, garam masala and the biryani powder.
17. Mix.
18. Cook for a couple of minutes.
19. Add in the tomatoes.
20. Cook until the oil separates from the tomatoes.
21. Scoop in the rice.
22. Add in 6 cups of water.
23. Squeeze in the juice from the lemon.
24. Plonk in the salmon.
25. Pop in the spinach.
26. Add salt to taste.
27. Mix.
28. Drop the heat to low.
29. Pop a lid on.
30. Let it cook for about 20 mins until the water has all gone and the rice is cooked.
31. Turn the gas off.
32. Garnish with coriander leaves.
33. Serve with raita.
34. Stuff face.
35. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

Tip: I usually stick the fish in the freezer for a bit before cooking. It makes it easier to get the skin off.

And remember, overeating is a myth. A full tummy is a happy tummy!