Asian grilled Salmon #InaFridays

Years ago, when I was new to US and new to American television, I used to watch a lot of shows that made very little sense to me. One of them was a chat show that had lots of people fighting with each other. Often, much to my horror, women participants would scream and fight with each other and then whip off their shirts/tops to show each other down and thump their chests like cave women…it was quite disgusting. Coming from a conservative country like India, it was extremely unnerving to find feuding families on national TV that ran half naked across the screen mouthing vile stuff. Between PBS, Crime shows, and the disgusting chat shows, I was getting quite fed up. For a while, I despaired that possibly these were the kind of stuff that I was now doomed to watch. Of course, soon I discovered On Demand, and life became good again, but that’s a different story.

In a grocery line one day I over heard someone chatting.  ‘I love watching the show In a Garden, I learn so much every time. The recipes are divine…’ two females right ahead of me in the line exchanging some television tit bits. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I couldn’t really help it. Dying to watch some good shows, a garden show seemed to be just what I needed. Temperatures were freezing outside, and garden show would a welcome relief. I repeated to myself the channel and the show timing all the way home.So I went home. In the afternoon, I turned on the TV and waited for the garden show to start.

What I saw was a plump, not a very glamorous woman talking to the camera and cooking at the same time. There was no ‘garden’ around her, though the kitchen was gorgeous. The name of the show was quite glamorous – Barefoot Contessa. A die hard fan of historical romances that sport Dukes and Earls and Counts and Contessas, the name enamored me right away. I forgot all about the garden show and started watching this very homely lady teach the audience some very simple, yet great looking dishes. This was my kind of show – a homely lady talking about what is most comforting to a person like me  who is trying to adjust to a new environment – comfort food.

And also made me realize that this is real America – what I was watching earlier is the typical television gimmick strategically aimed at getting the TRP that is practiced all over the greedy world of entertainment and was as real as the Indian television housewives who married 5 times in a single show and had plastic surgery to change their identity at least once.

You must have figured out by now that I am talking about Ina Garten and her show Barefoot Contessa. It took me a while to realize that the garden I was looking for actually was the lady whose name can mistakenly be thought as ‘in a garden’ by a novice. But once you know her, you can never forget that Ina’s simplicity in her cooking is her USP. She makes cooking look very simple, and yet very elegant. I especially love the recipes that sport very few ingredients and taste like the rock star dishes they are.

First Friday of every month, the Ina Friday group posts a recipe from Ina Garten’s vast repertoire. June is the month of main course. I choose to create a very simple recipe from the show Barefoot Contessa. It’s Grilled Asian salmon. It takes about half an hour to prepare and is outstanding in flavour. Placed on a bed of grilled asparagus, this grilled salmon recipe is a smashing.

My fellow Ina Friday fans:

My fellow bloggers from our Ina Fridays group:

Please check out this month’s recipes for Ina Fridays: