Giant Salmon Dinner Party in London

BahramGour,

As many of you know, cooking is a dear hobby of mine. Unfortunately, however due my line of work and lifestyle, in addition to travel, I am forced to eat out quite often for business meetings. So I truly relish the opportunity when I get to stay at home an cook for myself, and even more when I have guests.

The other night, I had 7 people over at my house for a small dinner party. But the guest of honor was clearly this amazing wild Scottish salmon pictured below, which I pre-ordered specifically from the mongers at the fish market. Sammy, the Salmon, was the largest salmon I have ever cooked by myself. I am going to walk you through the steps to this recipe below.

6+ Salmon 084
Sammy the giant Salmon

6+ Salmon 083

This salmon is pretty simple; first  you make the filling for the fish, then you stuff it and bake it in the oven. The stuffing consists of: fresh coriander, fresh dill, walnuts, tamarind paste, pomegranate paste or syrup, and salt and pepper to taste. I had gone the previous day to the famous Kingston Market in London to pick up the fresh herbs. Then it was off to the kitchen to prep everything before my guests arrived!

6+ Salmon 087

I had the fish mongers clean the fish at the market, after which you need to rinse and then salt the fish. I use Himalayan pink salt personally, but you pick what is best for you. Then it is time to prepare the filling.

6+ Salmon 091
fresh coriander and dill

So this is the easy part– chop all ingredients and combine!

6+ Salmon 0936+ Salmon 094

6+ Salmon 096 6+ Salmon 097 6+ Salmon 098

Next you add the wet ingredients — the tamarind paste and the pomegranate paste, which give this beautiful sweet and sour taste to the fish.

6+ Salmon 100 6+ Salmon 101 6+ Salmon 103 6+ Salmon 104

And then mix everything together well adjusting the flavor as needed.

6+ Salmon 105

6+ Salmon 107

Then you carefully stuff the inside of your salmon with the filling.

6+ Salmon 108

Then I take some saffron and baste the outside of the fish with saffron and hot water. Not only does this infuse great flavor into the fish, but also provides that beautiful golden color to the outside crust.

6+ Salmon 113 6+ Salmon 114 6+ Salmon 115

And then you bake it. Fish does not take that long to cook. Because this was such a large fish, I baked it in the oven for one hour. Normally, I bake fish for four people for 35 minutes so I had to give this big King Sammy extra time to cook through. And voila, this is the result one hour later. A perfectly baked golden delicious fish!

6+ Salmon 121
Isn’t he beautiful?

6+ Salmon 118

I served the salmon with traditional Persian herb rice that we serve with fish in Iran, called “sabzi polo.” Normally in Iran they prepare the rice using dried herbs or fresh herbs that were frozen and then thawed. I was lucky in that the market provided fresh goods so I could make the rice using fresh herbs which is always much more tasty, and to the delight of my guests was a treat for them as they said.

6+ Salmon 143

And here I am, the chef at the table after preparing the Giant Salmon! I hope you enjoyed my post about the dinner party featuring the giant King salmon. Drop me a comment below to let me know what you thought of the fish or to ask any questions about this dish or request another blog post featuring a recipe. I look forward to your comments.

Cuisine