Macher Kason Pora Jhol

 

This is a very old traditional Bangladeshi fish curry, I learnt it from my grandmom and unfortunately have no clue to the origin of the name “kason”. The main ingredient is deeply fried and almost burnt fenugreek seeds. The taste is very rustic and this is very easy and fast to make as well. You cannot go wrong with this. If you have never made fish curries this is a fantastic first yet innovative one to try.

 

Ingredients

• 4 steak pieces of  fish ( Preferably Rohu / Catla)
• 1 tbsp. garlic paste
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 2 tbsp. finely chopped green chilies
• 2 tbsp. finely chpped cilantro
• 2 tsp. methi seed (Fenugreek)
• 1 tbsp. turmeric powder
• 1 tsp. red chili powder
• 1 tsp. coriander powder
• Mustard oil
• Salt to taste

Procedure

Wash and pat dry fish pieces. Smear them with half tablespoon of turmeric powder and salt. Keep them aside for fifteen minutes.

 

In a small bowl make a paste of half turmeric powder, chili powder and coriander powder with water and keep it handy.

 

Heat mustard oil in a wok till it smokes. Reduce the heat and fry the fish pieces till both sides turn golden brown. Remove the fish pieces on a paper towel and keep aside. Discard the oil.

 

Heat another two tablespoon of oil on medium heat and temper it with methi seeds. Fry on low heat till you start getting the aroma. Now remove the methi seeds from the oil and discard.  Add chopped garlic to the oil and fry till you get a nice aroma. Remove and reserve it for garnishing. Add garlic paste to the oil along with half of  the chopped green chilies. Fry on low heat till the garlic paste loosed its raw smell.

 

add the spice powder mixture to it and fry on low heat till you can see the oil oozing out of the spice mixture. Add one cup of water and bring it to a boil before you add fried fish pieces to it. season with salt and let it boil for another five minutes.

 

Turn off the heat and garnish the gravy with fried chopped garlic, chopped green chilies and cilantro.

 

Serve with hot rice..

 

 

 

Tilottama Rui

Tilottama rui as the name suggests is made with til or white sesame seeds. This recipe was published in a recipe book by Sananda magazine. The photo of this dish was so tempting that I thought to give it a try. The original recipe calls for both ginger and garlic but keeping the aroma of til in mind I skipped the garlic. It turned out really good.

Ingredients

• 6 pieces rui or catla (any Carp) cut into steaks
• 3 tsp. white sesame seeds
• 1 tsp. yellow mustard paste
• 1 tsp. grated ginger
• 2 – 3 green chilies slit length wise
• 1/2 tsp. kalonji (nigella seeds)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tsp. turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• Salt to taste
• Mustard oil

Procedure

Rub fish steaks with one tsp. turmeric powder and salt and keep aside for 15 minutes.

In a pan dry roast sesame seeds on very low heat for a minute or two. Ensure that their color remains white. Then make a paste out of this roasted sesame seeds in a grinder. You can first grind it dry and then add little water to make the paste.

In a small bowl mix the mustard paste with a quarter cup of milk and keep it handy.

Heat oil in a wok and fry the marinated fish steaks till both sides turn golden brown. Remove and keep them on an absorbent paper.

Take fresh oil in a pan and heat it. Lower the heat and temper with kalonji seeds. Add mustard paste to it. Squeeze out ginger juice from grated ginger and add the juice. Sauté for a while and then add sesame seed paste. Fry everything on low heat till oil separates out.

Add rest of the milk, green chilies and fish steaks to it. Sprinkle salt and sugar and let it simmer for about 5 – 7 minutes on medium heat. Turn off the heat.

Serve with plain white rice.

Rui Maacher Sukha (Dry Carp Curry)

At our daughter’s school they get turns in “cafeteria duty”. For a week she gets to serve lunch to the entire school and in return she gets to eat lunch without having to buy that. This serves as a great learning on work and compensation.

Having had “formal training” we thought we’d give her newly learned skills a trial at home. So we asked her to serve lunch. Promptly she headed to the kitchen, washed her hands, patted them dry and asked for gloves :). It took some convincing that gloves are optional at home. After that she did a fantastic job of laying down the table mats and serving us lunch. The food was extra sweet.

Ingredients

1. 4 steak pieces of rui (Any sweet water carp can be used)
2. 1 medium onion thinly sliced
3. 1tsp. ginger juice
4. 2tbsp. tomato paste
5. 1tsp. mustard paste
6. 1tsp. turmeric powder
7. 1tbsp. chili powder
8. 2,3 bay leaves
9. 1/2 tsp. nutmeg (jaifal) powder
10. 1tbsp. ghee (clarified butter)
11. 1tsp. sugar
12. Salt
13. Mustard oil

Procedure

Smear the fish steaks with turmeric powder and salt. Keep it marinated for about 15 minutes.

Heat mustard oil in a wok or kadai and fry fish pieces one by one till both sides take a golden hue. Remove and keep them aside.

Take some more mustard oil and heat it up. Add bay leaves and sliced onions to it. Fry them on medium heat till the sides of the onions turn light brown. Add tomatoe puree and mustard paste to it. Mix everything well and fry them together in low heat.

Now add turmeric and chili powder to the fried spices and season it with salt and sugar.

Add fried fish steaks to it and pour half cup of water to it. Let it simmer on high flame till all the  fish pieces are well coated with the spices. This is a dry dish, so dry up any excess moisture.

Add ghee and one tsp. ginger juice to it. Wait for a minute before you turn off the heat. Finish it off with a pinch of nutmeg powder.

Enjoy with steaming white rice or pulao.

Doi Mach (Fish in Yogurt Sauce)

The great thing about having an IP phone (in this particular case vonage) is that I don’t miss much of what’s going on with my family thousands of miles away. Right now a young relative is getting married. In a bong marriage there is more discussion around what’s served at the banquet than about the bride and groom.

When we got married folks were tired of eating the same ‘ol bong food they had each day and the banquet menu started taking inspiration from across the country. Biriyani and Kebabs ruled. Now people are getting back to their roots. Caterers provided a bunch of samples and I heard that their doi-mach (yogurt-fish) has struck a chord. Though I cannot participate in the sampling, nothing stops me from having some sumptous doi-mach at home.

Doi-mach can be made with a variety of fresh water carps like Rohu and Catla. Since I get a ready supply of the former, I used rohu here.

Ingredients

1. 4 pieces of rohu OR catla cut into steak size pieces
2. 1/2 cup thick yogurt
3. 1 medium onion ( make a fine paste of half of the onion and chop the rest)
4. 1 tsp. ginger paste
5. 1 tbsp. turmeric powder
6. 1 tsp. chili powder
7. 1/2 tsp. Bengali garam masala powder
8. 2,3 bay leaves (tejpatta)
9. Whole garam masala (made of the following)
   1. 1" cinnamon
   2. 2,3 green cardamom
   3. 5,6 cloves
10. Salt
11. Sugar
12. 1 tbsp. ghee ( clarified butter)
13. Mustard oil

Procedure

Wash fish pieces and rub half of the turmeric powder and salt over it.

In a bowl mix yogurt with ginger paste, onion paste turmeric powder and chili powder.

Heat oil in a pan and shallow fry the fish steaks for a very little time till the raw color of the fish goes away. Remove and keep aside.

Temper the oil with 1 tsp. of sugar, bay leaf and coarsely pound whole garam masala. Add chopped onion and fry them on medium high heat till it becomes translucent. Turn off the heat and let it cool down a little before you add yogurt mixture to it. This way you can avoid the yogurt from curdling.

Sauté the masala till the raw smell of onion and ginger goes away. Season with salt and gently slide fried fish steaks into it. Let it simmer till the gravy thickens. The gravy won't be runny rather it will have a thick consistency. Finish it off with a spoonful of ghee and garam masala powder.

Serve with pulao or hot basmati rice.

Recipe Rui/Rohu macher Kalia

 

Today a Bengali marriage feast is less about bong food and more of international fare. Food like noodles, kebabs have become mainstay. Not so long ago that place was held by the likes of fish kalia.

Kalia is generally made with Rohu but can be replaced with other sweet water fish like Katla. The bigger and fatter the fish, the better.

Ingredient

1. 6 pieces rui or catla or any carp
2. 2 medium sized onion finely chopped
3. Ginger paste - 1 tbsp
4. Garlic paste - 1 tsp
5. Tomato - 1 large pureed
6. 2 medium potatoes each cut into 4 long wedges
7. Yogurt - 2-3 tbsp
8. Coriander powder - 1 tsp
9. Turmeric powder - 1 tbsp
10. Kashmiri red chili powder or paprika powder - 2 tsp
11. 2 tbsp. raisins
12. Coriander leaves
13. Green chilies - 3,4
14. Bay leaf - 2,3
15. Cinnamon stick - 1'
16. Green cardamom - 2
17. Clove - 3,4
18. Salt
19. Sugar

Procedure

1. Wash the fish pieces and smear with turmeric powder and salt. Keep aside.
2. Heat oil in a kadai or wok till it smokes. Fry the potato wedges. Remove from the oil and keep it.
3. Shallow fry the fish pieces till they are golden brown on both the sides. Discard the oil you used to fry the fish.
4. Now heat rest of the oil and temper it with bay leaf, cinnamon, cardamom and clove. As soon as they start sputtering add half a spoon of sugar to it. It will give the gravy a bright red hue due to caramelization.
5. Now add onion to it and keep on frying on medium heat till it turns reddish brown. You can add a pinch of salt to the chopped onion while frying,. It helps the onion to be cooked faster.
6. Now add raisins and keep sautéing till they turns golden.
7. Remove and make a paste of them.  
8. Take 2 tsp. oil in the wok and add tomato puree. Fry it till  oil separates from the spice.
9. Add ginger garlic paste to it. Sauté till their raw smell goes away. Add turmeric powder, chili powder, coriander powder, onion raisin paste to it. Fry till you see that oil is getting separated out.
10. Lower the heat and add beaten yogurt to it. Mix well. Add fried potato wedges and mix it well so that each of them are well coated with spice.
11. Add one cup of warm water along with salt.
12. Once the gravy starts boiling and the potato is just done add fried fish pieces. Allow it to cook on high heat till the gravy thickens.
13. Sprinkle garam masala powder. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and green chilies.

Best served with steaming white rice…4

Alu/Kopi Diye macher Patla Jhol (Potato/Cauliflower Fish Curry)

Today we woke up with a light frost covering all the roofs around our home. As if a light white blanket has been spread on them. In the bygone times when vegetables were bought fresh and were truly seasonal, winter meant a lot of special treats. So I decided to make one of those special treats for today.
This stomach friendly light fish curry is simple yet very tasty. Even though I am using cauliflower, feel free to be creative and use other vegetables and different spices for tadka or phoron.

Ingredients

1. Fish (Rohu, Catla or Grass carp) cut into 6 steak pieces
2. 1 large potato cut in wedges
3. 8-10 medium sized cauliflower florets
4. 2 tomatoes finely chopped
5. 1tbsp ginger paste
6. 1tbsp coriander
7. 1tsp chili powder
8. 2tbsp turmeric powder
9. 5 green chilies
10. 1tsp whole cumin seeds
11. 1 fistful of chopped coriander leaf
12. Mustard or any other white oil

Procedure

1. Wash the fish steaks and pat dry. Smear them with salt and turmeric powder.
2. Take oil in a pan and heat  till it is smoking. Note don’t burn the oil though. Fry the fish steaks till both sides are golden brown, remove from the oil and keep them on a kitchen towel. Discard the oil.
3. Again take oil in the Kadai and heat it Temper the oil with whole cumin seeds. Add potato and cauliflower florets and fry them. The vegetables should be lightly fried. 
4. Add the chopped tomatoes and fry till they are soft. Add ginger paste, coriander powder, chili powder, turmeric powder and sauté it with little water.
5. When the vegetables are well coated with all the spices and there is no smell of raw ginger add two cups of water. Cover the pan and cook till all the vegetables are done.
6. Once the vegetables are cooked (don’t overcook and make them mushy) add the fried fish pieces along with the green chilies. Cook it for another 5-6 minutes. The gravy will be light and runny.
7. Garnish with freshly chopped coriander.

Some times when I feel too lazy to take out my grinder and make ginger paste, I mix coriander powder, cumin powder, chili powder and turmeric powder in half a cup of water and use this mixture to sauté the vegetables. Rest of the procedure remains same. It reduces my cooking time a lot without compromising the taste.