Delights from the Garden of Eden

Yellow Rice with Broiled Salmon and Pomegranate-Raisin Sauce

Make this delightfully delicious and healthy fish dish in just 30 minutes. This is all it takes to have a feast. Try it! 

Find recipe in the following link:

Boston Globe Sunday Magazine: March 5, 2008

(Comprable recipes are included in my chapter on fish in Delights from the Garden of Eden, pp. 363, 365) 

Fish in Iraq:

Of the commercially important fish, which have been swimming in the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates for millennia are shabbout (Barbus grypus, of the carp family), which the British called ‘the salmon of the Tigris’, bunni and gittan (Barbus xanthopterus).

There is also the huge ‘monster of Tigris’ called biz (Barbus esotinus). In English, it is sometimes called ‘Tobias’ fish’. There is mangout, which is the counterpart of trout; mizlaaj (sole), and the less popular scavenger fish jurri (catfish).

The southern marshes are famous for their subour fish (shad). It is a medium-sized fish, very flavorful, but unfortunately infested with sharp tiny bones.

The Gulf in southern Iraq is the source for shrimp and the round flat fish with cute little faces and significantly fewer bones, called zbeidi (silver pomfret).  

Zbeidi

 Fish similar to zbeidi (silver pomfret) can be obtained from South Asian supermarkets, fresh and frozen. I got these fishes from a Korean store.

The best way to cook zbeidi is to fry it after sprinkling it with salt and turmeric or curry powder.