Madhouse recipe : Herby Salmon with Panch Phoron Potatoes

This was a really simple dish that was brought alive by some carefully selected spices.

Take a nice piece of salmon and sprinkle with rock salt, garlic pepper and thyme. Put in the oven for about half an hour until cooked through.

Zap some potatoes in the microwave. (I had some precooked baked potatoes as I usually throw some potatoes in the bottom of the oven to bake alongside the Sunday roast - this saves energy and provides a quick and simple meal for the next day.) Chop them into large pieces and fry them in a mixture of butter and olive oil. Keep the heat fairly low so they can cook for a long time (about 20 minutes) without burning so that the edges go nice and crispy and they take on a beautiful golden colour.

Sprinkle with Panch Phoron, a Bengali spice blend that contains cumin seeds, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, nigella seeds and fennel seeds. Mine came ready mixed from Spice Kitchen (see my review here) but you could blend your own. It has a subtle flavour and very slight warmth rather than a chilli kick so it didn't overpower the salmon.

Simple but very tasty.