Flaked salmon stir fry

When I think of food and want to recreate a long forgotten taste, hostel food rarely comes up. College food was not bad but the same cannot be said of the food at any of boarding schools. I do not drink tea, in fact I hate it, thanks to one of them. The one pleasant memory of the food in the boarding was the vegetable/mutton puff that were served twice or thrice a week, thankfully store bought.

Similarly minced fish brings a pleasant reminder of my college days and foremost is the taste of the fish poriyal(maybe it was called fish puttu made with sura meen (eel)). It had nothing to do with the hostel food, the delicacy was shared by a roommate during second year of college. Her parents had sent it one weekend which she was generous enough to share. We just could not get enough of it. I remember the curry leaves, onions, green chilies and the soft and buttery fish like it was yesterday. My entire cooking repertoire at this point were potato roast and my own milk chocolate concoction(made with condensed milk, cocoa powder and sugar and heated to solidify) so to have remembered even the ingredients is what perhaps James Beard via Madhur Jaffrey in her memoir 'Climbing Mango Trees' calls taste memory.

It was this tantalizing taste memory beckoning when I laid eyes on the canned Alaskan Wildeye Salmon at Costco a couple of weeks ago. Amazingly simple dish. I have tried it with canned tuna, steamed fresh tilapia and salmon. If you are using canned fish go easy on the salt. With the soft texture of scrambled eggs, these are a delight. The green chilies should be cooked to crisp and make it unnecessary to be picked aside when eating. The curry leaves are a very important ingredient of the recipe, I did not have any(can you believe that?) so did not add them. Thanks mallugirl for pointing that out.

Ingredients
1. 2 fillets of canned salmon broken loose into flakes with your fingers(if using fresh fish steam and then break them loose with your fingers)
2. 1 Onion chopped very fine
3. 8-10 green chillies chopped fine.
4. 3 cloves garlic minced
5. curry leaves 2 sprigs (more the better)
6. seasonings: mustard seeds, cumin and optional fennel seeds

Method
1. In a pan heat oil and add the seasonings, followed by the green chilies and onions and saute till they are brown.
2. If using canned no salt is needed otherwise add salt to the onions and mix
2. Now add the salmon and mix well with the onions, cook for 6-8 minutes till it is heated through but don't let it get to dry.