Spiced Salmon Skewers with Parsley Oil
Coated in a punchy spice mix, these flavourful make-ahead Palestinian salmon kebabs make for a simple fish supper, any night of the week.
From the book
Falastin: A Cookbook
A love letter to Palestinian food and culture from the Ottolenghi co-authors..
With a mix of traditional and modern recipes for everything from one-pots to perfumed sweet treats.
With beautiful photography and stories from unheard Palestinian voices.
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Introduction
These are quick and easy to prepare and a winner with all when served. Allow one skewer as a starter, or one or two for a main, bulked out with some rice and a green salad.
Getting ahead: You can get the salmon marinating a day ahead, if you like, ready to go on the skewers and be cooked. The parsley oil is also fine made a day ahead.
Ingredients
| 800g | salmon fillet, skinless and boneless, cut into roughly 4cm chunks (ideally, you want 24 pieces of salmon) |
| 1 tbsp | fish spice mix (see ingredients below) |
| 2 tsp | sumac |
| 3 tbsp | olive oil |
| 2 | onions, halved lengthways, peeled, then each half quartered into 4 big chunks (300g) |
| 12 | cherry tomatoes (about 150g) |
| sunflower oil, for greasing the griddle pan | |
| salt and black pepper | |
| 1 | lemon, quartered into wedges, to serve |
| For the parsley oil: | |
|---|---|
| 40g | parsley |
| 1 | garlic clove, finely chopped |
| 90 ml | olive oil |
| 1 | lemon |
| For the fish spice mix: | |
| 2 tsp | ground cardamom |
| 2 tsp | ground cumin |
| 1 tsp | paprika |
| 2 tsp | ground tumeric |
Essential kit
You will need: 6 metal or wooden skewers (about 25cm long). If wooden, soak them in water an hour before using.
Method
To make the fish spice mix. place all of the spices in a bowl and mix well to combine. If making more than you need, transfer to a sealed container where it will keep for a month.
Put the salmon into a large bowl along with the fish spice mix, sumac, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, ¾ teaspoon of salt and a generous grind of pepper. Mix well to combine, then set aside in the fridge for at least an hour.
Put the remaining 1½ tablespoons of olive oil into a large sauté pan and place on a medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring a few times, until they are slightly softened but have not taken on any colour: don’t worry if they fall apart a little bit and are no longer whole chunks. Remove from the heat and set aside.
To make the parsley oil, put the parsley, garlic, oil, ¼ teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper into the small bowl of a food processor. Blitz for about a minute, until smooth, then transfer to a small bowl. To prepare the lemon, use a small, sharp knife to trim off the top and tail. Cut down along its round
curves, removing the skin and white pith. Release the segments from the lemon by slicing between the membranes, then roughly chop the segments. Add these to the parsley oil, stir through and set aside until needed.
Preheat the oven to 230°C fan.
To assemble the skewers, start with a tomato and then alternate the salmon chunks and onion pieces. If you have a thinner, end piece of salmon, fold it in half to form a sort of cube. Finish each skewer with a second tomato.
Place a well-greased griddle pan on a high heat.
Once the griddle pan is smoking hot, add the skewers, in two batches, and grill for 3–4 minutes, turning throughout so that all sides are charred on the outside. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking tray and continue with the remaining skewers. Transfer to the oven and bake for 6–7 minutes, or until the salmon is just cooked through.
Transfer the skewers to a large serving platter (or individual serving plates) and drizzle over the parsley oil. Serve at once, with a wedge of lemon alongside.
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