MAACH TARKARIR JHOL

A fish curry with various vegetables may or may not sound yum depending on your preferences... I am not an "accommodative" fish lover, I like Bengali fish recipes besides fish and chips. I do love some variety of Thai or Chinese fish dishes.... Thai steamed ones still have spices, I wonder how the Oriental ones cooked in soya sauce get rid of the smell.... I simply love steamed sea bass and snapper, never tried to recreate them at home! I cook in the evening. 

I cook my men's lunch, pack send them to school and office, then go out for my outdoor exercises or sometimes take a leisurely stroll at the nearest mall. Some evenings I wish to spend less time in the kitchen but at the same time do not forget that my family needs to get proper nutrition. I really have to struggle to feed veggies to the two vegetable haters at home. The other day, to all of our convenience I prepared this Fish Curry with Assorted Veggies.

This time I can claim the sole idea of this recipe is mine. There may be many regions who cook veggies and fish together. Even in my side of the family, we prepare fish curry with pointed gourd, potato, egg plant, ridge gourd. Here I am talking about the spice mix I used. I thought of coming out of the regular Bengali fish curry spices and use a different combination of spice mix to make it more flavourful. This flavour thing has become a necessity because we need to cover up the smell of sea fish which we cannot stand as we have grown up on fresh-water fish. This Smelt Fish is a sea fish but does not have that odd smell, I can eat it.

INGREDIENTS :

Any Firm White Fish : 500gm [I used Smelt Fish, you can use fish fillets]
Tomato : 1big [washed, chopped and grind to paste]
Onion : 1 medium [peeled, washed, sliced]
Carrot Pieces : 1small cup [of 1 small sized ]

Green Peas : 2 tbsp
Potato : 1 medium [cut lengthwise and then widthwise]
Ginger Extract : 2 tbsp
Fenugreek Seeds : 2 pinches
Fennel Powder [mouri guro] : 1/2tsp
Coriander Powder [dhone guro] : 1tsp
Garam Masala Powder : 1/2 tsp
Red Chilli Powder : 1tsp
Turmeric Powder : 1tbsp
Asafoetida [hing] : A pinch [optional]
Lemon Juice : 3 tbsp
Salt : As Required
Lime Leaf : 2-3
Oil : 3tbsp

METHOD :

Wash and marinate the fish pieces with salt, turmeric powder and lemon juice for an hour.

Peel the carrot and potato, cut as told and wash thoroughly. Apply little salt and turmeric.

Heat the oil in a wok, fry the potatoes and carrot pieces in batches. Keep aside. 

Temper the same oil with asafoetida and fenugreek seeds. As they crackle, add the onion slices.

Once the onions turn golden brown, add the ginger extract, tomato paste, salt and turmeric. Fry until the oil separates from the spices.

Add the fennel, coriander and red chilli powder. Stir cook for a minute.

Pour a big cup of water and cover . As the gravy comes to a boil, add the fried fish pieces, lime leaves and the half done veggies. Cover cook at low heat for 4-5 minutes.

Add the garam masala powder. Boil for a minute. It should be done.

It goes very well with piping hot steamed rice.