Shorshe Salmon | Salmon in Mustard Sauce

Nearly a decade of living in the United Kingdom has made the elder sister a good cook and an almost expert in the art of ‘kitchen substitutes’. A cheerleader for the ‘quick and easy’ meal squad, Raka (the elder sister’s name that means ‘full moon’) confesses that she has learned by trial and error.

“I would crave certain Bengali dishes that we’ve (her husband included) grown up eating but would not know how to make them in England. There were missing ingredients, be it the greens or fish or spices. It took me a while but over the years, with a little guidance from my mother and late mother-in-law, I learned tricks that helped me figure out the substitutes,” she says.

As I observe her working in the kitchen, I realise that substitute is not the apt word here. She has adapted the Bengali ways of cooking, the methods of using spice to the ingredients available in the markets of Bristol. Probably how she comes up with interesting combinations like the celery-coconut stir fry, kale fritters or the basa maacher jhol (basa fish curry).

The shorshe (mustard) salmon or salmon in Bengali mustard sauce is one among this arsenal of recipes she has built. “Salmon is a favourite and cooks easily. I can just put the pieces into the sauce and go about doing my work. The best bit is that I don’t need to fry the fish before cooking it. Helps save time,” she explains while teaching me how to flip the pieces in the bubbling sauce.

For the clueless, most Bengali fish curries require the fish pieces to be fried before they are cooked in the sauce or sauce. Fingers crossed I can find some good salmon in Ahmedabad and make this again!

Until then, here’s the recipe for you. If you cook it, do click a photograph and post it on social media. To stay updated on new recipes, follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. You could also subscribe and be a part of the mailing list.