This Monday our world wide dairy & gluten free weekly menu plan brought us to Central Asia and gave us the chance to explore some of the delicious flavours of Turkmenistan.
Turkmen Salmon Shashlik
I’m still not entirely sure if it’s properly spelt shashlik or shashlyk, but either way it means skewered meat and it’s absolutely delicious. The Turkmen-inspired marinades I researched had a variety of subtle differences, but it was clear that the most important ingredients were wine and garlic … my kind of meal!
I gave our salmon the same royal treatment that any beef or lamb would have gotten in its place, favouring a heavy dose of red wine & red wine vinegar; yes I know, even for fish … that’s why it says ‘Impulsive’ up top there. The resulting change in colour and texture was beautiful and I couldn’t wait to fire up the bbq!
Roasted Eggplant Salad
There are very few roasted vegetables that I enjoy quite as much as roasted eggplant. It always fascinates me how such a thirsty and unattractive looking food can tranform into one of the most delicious and mysterious taste and texture sensations ever. Let’s just say I always roast a bit more than I need for the meal; one for me, one for the dish kinda thing.
This Turkmen-inspired roasted eggplant salad had me sold from the get-go and I personally found it to be the perfect accompaniment to our scrumtuous salmon shashlik. Very few leftovers this time, which means it’s another keeper for the recipe books … one might even say ‘tagamly owkat’!
