Blackened sumac salmon grain bowls with tahini dressing
This method uses the Caribbean cooking style of ‘blackening’. The spice rub on the outside of the salmon is cooked over a high heat, giving it a deliciously smoky and crisp exterior with perfectly cooked fish in the centre. You can add your cooked fish to this grain bowl, but if you prefer, you can stuff it into pitta breads with tahini and parsley, or simply eat it with salad and potatoes.
What is blackening? It might feel counterintuitive to take the cooking quite so far, but don’t lose your bottle, and overcome any concerns about burning your food – the key is a high heat on the outside. The method is called blackening because the point is to appropriately burn (blacken) the spice coating. The just-burnt spices against the oily fish give it an earthy, warm-flavoured coating rather than being super ‘spicy’ or bitter as you would expect.
Recipe extracted from The Modern Spice Rack by Esther Clark and Rachel Walker (£22, Hardie Grant). Photography by Matt Russell.
See all the best recipes from the House & Garden archive.
MAY WE SUGGEST: The best cookbooks to gift or be gifted
