Salmon with Sumac, Fennel Seeds and Lime Dust

My mouth is still humming from dinner. Salmon with sumac, fennel seeds and lime dust, with a pretty hot hot gypsy salad on the side. Both recipes from my Christmas present cook book, Malouf -- New Middle Eastern Food, by Greg and Lucy Malouf.

This book was a surprise present. I planted the cookbook present seed, as I do every year, and was expecting a copy of Maha by Shane Delia. Between one Christmas decoration/expectation and the next, Malouf was in my stocking instead. This was a Very Happy Turn of Events. It's a great cook book. It has introduced me to the wonders of lime dust -- my name for the miracle of dried, ground lime zest -- how marvelous does that sound? Not as marvelous as it tastes.

THE SALMON
The salmon is seared in a hot pan, smeared with mustard, dusted with the marvelous powder, and finished off in a hot oven. I didn't make any changes to this recipe. It's too perfect as is. This recipe is for four; just cut in half for two.

You'll need

• The zest of one lime
• 1 tbs fennel seeds
• 1 tbs sumac
• 4 salmon filets
• Oil, salt and pepper

The Dust

• Bake the fennel seeds and lime zest in the oven at 120 celcius for 20 mins.
• Grind in a mortar and pestle with the sumac. The only downside of grinding everything together is that the amazing colour combo is destroyed. Just like when you mix certain green and red paints, you end up with an uninspiring brown. Next time I'm not going to grind it up, but put it on the salmon in red and green drifts.

• Heat the oven to hot hot. 
• Heat an oven proof fry pan to hot hot.
• Brush salmon filets with oil and season with salt and pepper.
• Sear the salmon skin side up first, then skin side down.
• Smear the top of the seared filet with dijon mustard and dust with the lime/fennel/sumac mix.
• Slip the pan into the hot oven and bake for about 10 mins, until the salmon is cooked to your liking.

GYPSY SALAD

I made a few changes to this recipe, but stayed true to its billing, which was the crunch of raw veges tamed with soft dried fruit, and hot chilli tamed by cool yogurt.

• 2 ripe tomatoes
• 1 Lebanese cucumber
• 1 red onion
• 1 bunch of baby carrots
• A handful of cranberries (apricots in the original, but we were fresh out of dried apricots)
• A handful of finely chopped mint (not in the recipe either, but felt right)
• I also added pomegranate seeds -- the very definition of crunch, and in the shops now. I know they're imported and all that, but in my opinion, pomegranates in NZ in January represent the upside of globalisation.

All chopped small and tossed with a finely diced hot chilli.

Dressing

• A big dollop of plain yogurt, the thicker the better
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• Salt and pepper
• The recipe asked for lemon juice, but I used the juice from the zested lime instead. Lovely.

We usually default to lemon with salmon, but the bright tart flavours of lime and sumac with the deep, dark aniseed flavour of fennel take salmon to a whole other wonderful place.