Curry goes surprisingly well as a seasoning for fish.
Kape Aihine runs Robusto in Helsinki and Roster in Turku. Kaisa Vehkalahti
Chef Kari Kape Aihine has a very special relationship with the smokehouse. He learned how to do it after getting a permanent job at the legendary pizzeria Dennis in Turku on the last day of August in 1994.
At first Aihine worked as a cook, but after six months he was a chef.
The restaurant’s menu included salmon linguine, a warm smoked pasta seasoned with curry. Little did Aihine know at the time that the recipe would become his most shared recipe. Over the past twenty years, more than one home cook has received the recipe for curry-flavored smoked pasta.
It can also be found Narrow 24h from the cookbook (January 2017).
– This is a simple and filling pasta with my favorite spice, curry. I fell in love with curry already in 1994 in Dennis, Aihinen reveals.
Wait a minute. Is the curry that surfaced in the 1980s really the favorite of top chefs? In the 1980s, there was certainly a jar of curry in every family’s spice cabinet, from which the flavor was sprinkled on the chicken.
Curry is often associated only with chicken dishes, but it is a key flavor with salmon. It is anything but a seasoned spice
– Curry was one of the first spice mixes. It is suitably gentle and fiery, Aihinen states.
Nowadays, there are a huge number of different spice mixes on the store shelves, so curry is bound to get a little overwhelming.
However, Aihinen believes that we are gradually getting back to normal.
– More and more restaurants have honest and recognizable food. The customer knows what he is eating, says the restaurateur of the Roster and Robusto restaurants.
According to Aihinen, curry is a great seasoning for salmon because it breaks down and removes the fat from the salmon.
Smoked pasta is prepared quite quickly. Adobe Stock / AOP
Smoked pasta seasoned with curry
(4 servings)
fresh dill
200 g of cold-smoked salmon
200 g warm smoked salmon
pasta (e.g. spaghetti or penne pasta)
half a leek
win
3 teaspoons of curry powder
3 dl of whipped cream
0.5 cup (75 g) of sour cream
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
ground black pepper
salt
1. Chop the dill and cut the salmon into good-sized pieces. Check that the fish is boneless.
2. Boil water in a large pot and cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package. Strain.
3. Rinse and chop the leek and lightly fry it in butter. Don’t brown. Add the curry powder and cook for a while until the leek softens a little.
4. Add the cream and cook the sauce for about 5 minutes. Carefully mix in the salmon pieces. Finish with sour cream, lemon juice and a sprig of dill. Season with pepper and, if necessary, salt.
5. Serve with spaghetti or penne pasta. For example, prepare a colorful salad as a side dish.