Grilled Salmon Steak

Good morning beautiful friends!

Salmon is one of my favorite types of fish.  Even though it is comparatively expensive to other fish I choose to cook with it more often because it tastes great when baked or grilled with select herb and spices. There are plenty of marinades you can use with salmon and it responds really well. The following recipe uses yogurt, oil, lemon chili powder and carom seeds. It is very convenient for a weeknight meal and also  pretty enough to serve to guests for lunch or dinner with stir fried  vegetables, and some bread or rice.

But, I must first apologize for neglecting my space for the last few weeks. Believe me, it was very much needed. My sister and her husband came all the way from India to visit us. I met them after 6 years. They are the only family I have in India after my parents’ death. Their son studies in a college here. Their daughter also flew down from Saskatoon with her sweet little dog, Pixie. So, our dog had company too.  With long drives, lots of sightseeing, shopping, late night talking and everything in between … there wasn’t much time left for blogging. I enjoyed spending every second with my sister’s family and showing them our beautiful city and around! We  tried making their stay  enjoyable and comfortable.  After they went back, we headed up on a vacation to San Francisco, just the three of us for a family vacation.

It was cold and windy in San Francisco

I had planned to do a post about our travel right after we came back, but it didn’t happen that way. I had a vertigo attack the next day.  What happened was that when I was doing housework in the morning I began to lose balance. With great difficulty I climbed the stairs holding on to the railing and the wall to come to the bedroom. My husband wasn’t home so I called my daughter. I thought of resting but lying down made me more dizzy and nauseated. It was extremely upsetting when I could not close my eyes or look up or even move my head to right and left. Everything seemed spinning around me. I sat upright, held my head in both hands and fixed my gaze in one direction. Seeing my symptoms, my daughter asked if she should call 911, she just wanted to be sure it wasn’t an emergency. I had dealt with vertigo before so I kind of knew I didn’t have to go to the hospital. But since I hadn’t had it in a long time and never after a flight, I wasn’t completely sure. I told her to wait.   The symptoms tended to ease after I threw up a few times. Sitting in one position caused tension in my neck muscles. The dizziness feeling went away after several hours. I went to see the doctor the next day when  I felt a little more stable and she confirmed it was vertigo. She also prescribed  medication to ease symptoms if happens again.  My blood pressure is usually normal but after that incident it rose up. I was told to measure it every day for 10 days and to see her (doctor) if it doesn’t come down. It’s been a week, I have this weird heaviness in my head and my blood pressure hasn’t been normal yet. This worries me. My mother had high blood pressure most of her life. Doctor said if my parents had it then my chances of having it increases.

With all that said, I lost motivation to write but this weekend my daughter’s words inspired me to some extent when she said mom you are making yourself sick by unnecessarily worrying. Just keep doing what you are doing. Continue eating healthy, increase your exercise, do meditation, you’ll be fine. My daughter is in 20’s and she acts like my mom. Actually, she is a great support to me emotionally. I realized she was right. I just have to ignore the negative thoughts from my head and think about all the good no matter what. So here I am back to normalcy.

While going to Victoria

Back to the grilled salmon.

Besides being tasty, salmon is a nice, fatty fish rich in omega 3 fatty acids.  The yogurt marinade in this recipe keeps the salmon moist and succulent, and carom seeds add a distinctive finish.  If salmon is not available at your place you can use any thick fish but I guess it’s the salmon that carries the marinade so well. You can completely prep the ingredients ahead of time and marinate fish overnight in a refrigerator to induce the flavor deep into the flesh.  It is believed that fish should not be marinated for long but don’t worry the lactic acid in yogurt is very mild so it reacts in a gentle way. I have made this recipe on gill and in the oven as well. When baking in oven I sear the steaks in grill pan first 1 1/2 minute on each side just to get the grill marks and then finished cooking in oven.  You can choose to cook fully in oven or on the grill.

I served this grilled salmon with stir fried beans and brown basmati rice.

Few photos of some places we visited when I was MIA

Having picnic with my sister’s family at butchart gardens in Victoria.

Grouse Mountain Vancouver

Butchart Gardens, Victoria

Fisherman’s wharf, San Francisco

This post is linked to Allergy Free Thursdays, Gluten Free Fridays.

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