Salmon Paturi on the grill-A Bengali recipe gone cosmopolitan

Its been a hectic two weeks and blogging has been in the back of my mind. I was busy vacationing and had to host a party for 50 people.Last week was back to work and hence its been a while I have posted anything here. Now that spring is here, grilling is back in session. We have enjoyed, chicken burgers, shrimp fajitas with guacamole and margaritas. But my favorite has been Salmon Paturi which my brother-in-law Nilay cooked for us when he came to visit us last year. Paturi is very much like tamales where the main ingredient is cooked with a mustard sauce in banana leaves. Its one of the delicacies served in marraige receptions and in most cases the main ingredient being fish(mainly Hilsa or Bhetki). The main reason Hilsa or Bhetki is used as it has a lot of flavor. Since salmon is readily available here, I have used salmon as it has the same incredible flavor. I have tried it in the past but the flavor always does not come out as expected and the mustard sauce seems uncooked. Nilay added another step to the process and it turned out perfect. So enjoy this with just a bowl of basmati and you would have enjoyed a delectabl but simple meal.
Ingredients:
1 pound of salmon cut into 5 long pieces.
1/2 cup mustard oil
1/2 cup yellow mustard
6-7 hot chilli pepper
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 tsp turmeric
salt to taste

• Soak the mustard for 15 minutes in a cup of water.
• Drain the mustard and grind it with a pinch of salt and two chilli peppers.
• Add the rest of the salt, turmeric, 1/4 cup mustard oil and a tablespoon of water to the ground mustard.
• Cook the mustard in the microwave for 30 seonds. This is an important step as salmon and mustard sauce do not take the same time to cook.

• In an alumium foil 6 inches by 6 inches long add a little of the paste and them top with salmon.
• Add some more paste on top of the salmon.
• Top it with a teaspoon of mustard oil and a horizontally slit chilli pepper and a few cilantro leaves.

• Seal the salmon by folding the alumium foil in a packet.
• Repeat the process for the rest of the four salmon pieces.
• Heat the grill on high and then press the packets on the grill.
• Turn the grill to a medium heat and let the salmon cook for 7 minutes on each side.

• Open the foil and serve the salmon with rice.

My next post will be about southern food that I enjoyed in and around Pensacola Florida. I am hoping to reproduce some of the food that I ate there in the coming months.