POTOL ALOO DIYE RUI KATLAR JHOL

I was scrolling through my phone memory yesterday and came across this fish curry / maach er jhol. I did the photo feature just a year back when my side of the family visited us. This is a curry with Bengal Carp we had been eating since childhood. Throughout the entire summer; a light fish curry with the summer vegetables, a lemon wedge, a green chilli was what I needed for my lunch and dinners. A meal without fish was beyond my imagination. I really feel very bad  at times thinking of my behaviour  on vegetarian Thursdays, on days when the mother took extra load of works like washing the bed sheets or the mosquito nets. On those days, she would get very tired in the afternoons. Back from the school, even whilst in college I would create a scene if she did not make me "ruti or porota" for a tiffin. How mercilessly I negated her request to have puffed rice or beaten rice or popped rice with milk & bananas. You see, now I love having them all including vegetables of my choice.

Today, I realise that at some point she had to say "no" for our own good. Had she been little stricter, we would have been independent. Because she pampered me / us to the core, I could not adjust to the environment in the in-law's place. It was a totally different environment. All of a sudden, I found myself in a very harsh atmosphere given the parents kept me in a way protective, cocooned shell. The brother sacrificed the best fish pieces for me, at times I did not allow him the chicken leg pieces either; he in fact hated food then. The father had never hit me after that class seven incident, I was gradually settling down with the Kolkata life; he took me to the Eden Gardens, later Salt Lake Stadium too, to movies  and took subscriptions of a lot of book series and the monthly Desh, Anondomela, Shuktara kept coming. Dining out never happened; the mother had to cook, eat and pack tiffin boxes on days we went for shopping or to Victoria Memorial, Museum or anywhere for a day, on road we could have only sweets & ice creams. Later, both me and the brother tried to treat them often outside; the brother more. They ate but their heart was more into a humble, homely fish curry as this POTOL ALOO DIYE RUI KATLAR JHOL.

I treated the visiting family last year with other kinds too but not too much, the brother is not so open towards a variety in food; he is quite rigid who did not want to taste Southern Indian style Biryani calling it spicy after tasting it only once in Kolkata. There is a greenery too beside the orange hues; I mean the Indian flag has a place for the both. Coming to me, I have done a photo feature with a chicken curry cooked in microwave two times, then did not like the taste. I will cook the same in a vessel and the mother & brother would have the ultimate smile, "koshiye ranna korer alada shad bujhli?" I really wanted the brother to get out of that house a decade back  and experience the real, tough life. Okay, I have no right to say this; did the senior at this home ever let me experience hardship? The brother at least earns for the family; what do I do? Yes, it feels bad unable to be friends with the husband's mother till date. I knew we will never gel, we belong to different worlds, we share no common interest or temperament.  Then why did I step into their home? I should not have. Post marriage, I discovered she does not at all respect boundaries, nor feelings and I am very particular about those. Okay, their family too used to do this maacher jhol / Bengali fish curry with pointed gourd, potato and Bengal Carp at times I guess. The man however is not so fond of vegetables in fish curry. These days I see he eats everything I serve unless it is too much against his tastebud. Yes, that includes "lutlutey beulir dal" too I so love. I told you I am not much into the "Bangal-adeshio" fight.

I know some mother-in-laws who do not mind cooking their daughter-in-laws' favourites till date. Just like me, they are not in the habit of discussing people or their daughter-in-laws. In any family, there cannot be everything rosy & perfect. There will be complaints from both sides; who I am talking about has the sense of decency of not complaining about anything to an outsider like me. Who does not enjoy the company of such like minded people? I aspire to become one such mother-in-law who would have the guts to live alone if life requires me to, who will not claim mountains as the perks of a life time sacrifice done for the cubs, who does not stop living even if it is to live alone and keep complaining calling every other person. Had I been in Kolkata, I would have want to carry a bowlful of this Bengali fish curry POTOL ALOO DIYE RUI KATLAR JHOL for such a person. It is very unfortunate if people try to find out worms in such associations, keep suspecting if I intent to sour the relationship within the family. I have more to do in life, do not time for nonsensical activities.Why did not I meet my friend Indranil's mother all these years and finally decided to days before she died? What is loyalty? It cannot be more important than being human, dutiful. I will regret all my life not meeting her, this guy too remained too secretive & unwilling to discuss his mother with us! The story of Indranil & Subho, the two brothers is one of a kind I do not have the liberty to talk about!

INGREDIENTS :

RUI / KATLA / BENGAL CARP : 7-8 PIECE 
POTATO : 1BIG
POTOL / POINTED GOURD : 4-5
GINGER PASTE : 1TBSP
GREEN CHILLI PASTE : 2TSP
CUMIN POWDER : 1TSP
CORIANDER POWDER : 1/2TSP
RED CHILLI POWDER : 1TSP
TURMERIC POWDER : 1TSP
CUMIN SEED : 2PINCH
BAY LEAF : 1
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 4-5TBSP [WE USE MUSTARD OIL]

PROCEDURE :

Wash the fish steaks properly and drain the water completely. 500gms cut portion from larger carps of 5 to 10 kg sized gives you 8 standard pieces. Here, the bigger ones come as frozen. So, I buy a whole fish which is usually 2-3 kg of weight. I prefer even smaller but the men fear smaller bones.

We will then rub a little of the turmeric and salt on the fish pieces and keep aside for 10 minutes.

We will peel the potato, cut half and then further lengthwise preferably We will peel the potatoes thinly keeping a gap or do not peel the vegetables at all. Wash them and rub with little salt & turmeric.

My family uses spice pastes of cumin, coriander too. I cannot, so what I do is mix together the ginger paste, green chilli paste, cumin powder, coriander powder, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt taking in a bowl. I add a tbsp of water to it to get a paste like consistency. Fresh fish does not require anymore spices in a Bengali household.

We will heat the oil in a wok and fry the fish pieces lightly if they are fresh, in case of frozen fish we need to deep fry.

We will take out the fried fish pieces and keep aside. My family or Bengali families in general fry lightly the potato & pointed gourd pieces too but I try not to these days.

We will temper the oil with cumin seeds and a bay leaf. We will add the spice paste and stir at low heat for 2 minutes.

We will add the potato & pointed gourd pieces to it and stir cook at low heat for a minute.

We will reduce the heat to minimal and add 2 coffee mugs of water. When it comes to boil, we will increase the heat to low.

After the curry has boiled for 4-5 minutes, we will add the fried fish pieces, give a stir and boil it further for 3-4 minutes. We can add few slitted green chillies and cook further for a minute. Done.

We have it with rice, you can try with chapati. We also had bottle gourd & fried moong sabzi & fried bottle gourd peels on that day for our lunch.