KANCHA AAM ER KHOSHA O MORICH BATA DIYE RUI / KATLA

I have pictures of fish dishes from two-three years back yet to be shared in the blog. However, I had chosen the curry I had done last week end for today's blog share. I never could think of using raw mango skin for preparing any dish. I saw somewhere recently about it's use and an idea quickly popped up in my head. The raw mango I used for cooking dal last week had it's skin lying in the refrigerator; I had only four pieces of Indian / Bengal Carp; Katla pieces to cook on that day. You can use Rohu too! Everything was in coordination; doing the curry was a forty five minutes of job. I really do not get how people cook four dishes in forty minutes. They might have five hands or as I say, they are magicians. Frying four pieces of fish takes eight to ten minutes in my kitchen. We slow cook each side at minimal heat. I have shown Cristine how to fry things in my kitchen; she is quite impressed how aunty, our mother did the cooking; her super fast chapati rolling capability and super slow take while frying stuffs in minimal oil & heat.

The thing is, I totally forgot in whose post I saw the use of raw mango skin and what was the dish it was used in. It definitely was not used in a fish curry like this Bengali, gluten-free fish curry with a carp variety KANCHA AAM ER KHOSHA O MORICH BATA DIYE RUI / KATLA. Whoever you are, if you are reading this, tag yourself. I am also eager to know in what you did use raw mango skin. There is something so refreshening in a raw mango; because what we get in this island are not sour to the extreme, I love them. Our entire family has unquestionable love for ripened mango. Yesterday, I went to a different market, did not get good, ripe mangoes. I must venture out locally or to the Indian market area for mangoes. We are avoiding Mustafa Centre, they get the Bengali variety Himsagar too. But the quality is so poor that I never could buy till date. Better are the cheap Thai & Indonesian variety or the Alphonso & some Southern Indian varieties available in the Indian market area.

My yesterday's afternoon venture to a plaza largely meant for the Myanmarese was good, if not an out of the world experience. Of vegetables, I only could buy banana blossom & stem, rest were stale. I could get some "pabda & tyangra" and a big packet of "lotey shutki." Those are smaller cat fish varieties Bengalis eat and dried Bombay Duck. Pabda is called butter fish in English. You know me, I could not resist myself, last night I cooked four pabda fish with a little amount of ginger paste and red chilli powder, a little of salt, turmeric, a slitted green chilli & nigella seed. That the fish stomachs did not tore off while frying them and we got the taste of a good Kolkata meal says that the fish was not that stale. While cleaning too, I felt the same. I mean Cristine did, I had only shown. 

I guess, I can change the pictures of my blog post  about "pabda with bori" tomorrow. That was done in Kolkata with the freshest of the fish variety, but the pictures are horrendous. Yes, I am excited to cook the egg filled "tyangra maach"; if only they do not prove too stale. I can see the pleasure bites all of us in the family are taking on the fish eggs, the son so loves. Eggs however kill the real taste of any fish.

My stomach is rumbling; soft, semolina idli is here on my breakfast plate now. How do people skip meals? I will share everything in public tomorrow evening; the idli picture, my experience at the Peninsula Plaza and what I made out of the produce bought. As of now, let us share the recipe of this Bengali style, regular fish curry with Indian Carp / Rohu, raw mango skin, green chilli, yogurt etc. KANCHA AAM ER KHOSHA O MORICH BATA DIYE RUI / KATLA. The onion had to be used because the otherwise fresh fish was sitting in the freezer for two weeks. 

INGREDIENTS :

ROHU / KATLA / INDIAN CARP : 4-5 STANDARD PIECE
RAW MANGO SKIN : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP FULL [of two standard sized mango]
GREEN CHILLI : 4-5
PLAIN YOGURT : 2-3 TBSP
GINGER PASTE : 2 TSP
TURMERIC : 1/2 TSP + 3 PINCH
NIGELLA SEED / KALOJEEREY : 3-4 PINCH
SLITTED GREEN CHILLI : 1 OR 2
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 3-4 TBSP [I USED MUSTARD]

PROCEDURE :

Get rid of all the scales and dirt from the fish pieces, wash thoroughly. I prefer running water.

Rub with salt & 1/2 tsp turmeric. Keep aside for 10 minutes or so.

Wash the raw mango skin pieces, 4-5 green chillies and take in a blender, add the yogurt. Blend to a fine paste; add little water if required.

Heat the oil in a wok and fry the fish pieces; each side slowly in minimal heat. This will take 8-10 minutes.

Take out the fish pieces, add the nigella seeds & a bayleaf in the same oil. 

Add the ginger  paste, 2-3 pinches of turmeric powder and stir fry at low heat for 2 minutes.

Add the raw mango skin, green chillies & yogurt paste, stir fry for nearly a minute at minimal heat.

Add 11/2 coffee mugs of water and bring to boil keeping the heat at low. Adjust the salt.

After the curry has boiled for 5 minutes; add the fish pieces and one or two slitted & washed green chillies.

Simmer at low heat, covered for 3-5 minutes. We should be done.

Get some rice, dal, a veggie dish, pakoras, salad and enjoy your fish meal.