BEGUN ALOO DIYE SEA BASS ER JHAL

Sea Bass comes regular at this home ever since we relocated to this island from Kolkata. In Kolkata, we hardly ate Bhetki; the nearest family member of sea bass or barramundi. They say they are almost same but not totally same. Whilst in Kolkata, bhetki fillets used to come home occasionally for fish fries to be made. I think we have talked about it in my earlier blog posts. Here sea bass is found in abundance; very fresh and of good quality. We get it here in baby form, in sizes ranging from 500gm-750gm-800gm and very big sized above 3kg to 6-7kg, as I have noticed in the past ten years. Because it is a fleshy, less boned fish; my men are all game for it. They definitely would want me to get those big sized and store in the freezer, have for days just as we do with "rui-katla" / bigger sized Bengal Carps.

I, at all times cannot give in to the wishes of my men; though they are not at all demanding. I have a problem with cooking regularly fishes those of which smell, those I am not fond of or I am not used to eating since childhood. That is why for doing any fish curry with a pomfret or sea bass kind of fish, I buy in less quantity, cook and have fresh. When it comes to sea bass, I either buy the baby ones or a 600-700-800 gm sized, very fresh. This non-vegetarian Bengali Fish Curry with sea bass / bhetki / barramundi BEGUN ALOO DIYE SEA BASS ER JHAL ; that is sea bass curry with egg plant & potato using green chilli-mustard paste is done with a very fresh, medium sized sea bass. The same fish curry can be done using bhetki / barramundi too; I actually do not find any difference between them.

The more the senior of the men's returning date to the island is approaching, I am again into weird kind of thoughts.  Off course, I will be happy to be with him; but more than my happiness; our boy's safety and security is important to me. He will be in a very safe and secured environment but a mother's fear knows no bounds. I sit all day and think, think and think nonsense, endlessly. I wish we could stay in the same city as his. Yesterday, I was all alone post afternoon, to get some respite from the thoughts, I stretched my eyes through the horizon and froze that moment.

And this morning, I woke up to these bitter gourd saplings.

I have started liking to eat it but I could not have thought of growing bitter gourd plant at home. My men are travelling, they do not eat it except that the son eats crispy fried bitter gourds; they have no interest in gardening. Then who? Ahh! Cristine! She says that in Philippines; they eat bitter gourd leaves & green moong soupy curry. Okay done! At this home, we respect each other's wishes. Like, I will never force my men to have "puti maach"; neither they would ever stop me from cooking and eating it. Today, all day I have been day dreaming of "gorom bhaat with borshakaal er dim bhora puti maach er tetul tok". That is what happens when you do not visit Kolkata for over a year. For now I will satisfy myself with the tail end piece of that sea bass; gladly the curry, egg plants & potatoes with some hot rice. My men, Cristine always love the fleshy stomach pieces from this non-vegetarian, Bengali Fish Curry BEGUN ALOO DIYE SEA BASS ER JHAL.

INGREDIENTS :

SEA BASS / BHETKI / BARRAMUNDI : 6-8 PIECES
EGGPLANT : 2-3 SMALL SIZED
POTATO : 1 MEDIUM SIZED
BLACK MUSTARD SEED : 1 TBSP
GREEN CHILLI : 5-6
GARLIC CLOVE : 1
SALT : AS REQUIRED
ICE CUBE : 2-3 
TURMERIC POWDER : 1TSP
NIGELLA SEED / KALO JEEREY : 1/4 TSP
OIL : 4-5 TBSP [ FOR US IT IS MUSTARD OIL]


PROCEDURE :

Wash the fish pieces thoroughly; they should be cut pieces from a fresh fish; frozen fish may not give you the desired taste. Rub well with little salt & turmeric.

Soak the mustard seeds in water for an hour.

If the eggplants are small, cut off the stem end and just half; if little bigger, cut each into 4 pieces. Wash and soak in water.

Cut the potato into cubes. I do not always throw off the skin. Soak in water.

We will marinate the potato & eggplant pieces with little salt & turmeric only 3-4 minutes before frying them, else they get black spots on them.

Heat oil in the wok and lightly fry the potatoes first. Take out. Now fully fry the eggplant pieces and reserve on a plate.

Fry the fish pieces light brown. Do not over fry. Take out.

While doing the frying part; we will strain the soaked mustard seeds and put it in the blender along with the washed green chillies, garlic cloves, salt, ice cubes. We will blend all to a fine paste pausing in between.

[Salt & ice cubes do not let the paste get bitter!]

We will temper the oil with the nigella seeds. Add the chilli-mustard paste and 1/4 small tea cup of water. Add the remaining turmeric powder.

We will stir for a minute and add the lightly fried potatoes. We will add 11/2 coffee mugs of water and give a stir.

Then, we need to cover cook at low heat for 5 minutes. We have to open the cover and add the fish pieces.

We have to cover cook at low heat for 3 minutes. Then, we will uncover, turn over the fish pieces, adjust the salt, add the fried eggplant pieces and few slitted green chillies.

Now, let us cook covered at low heat for 2 minutes. Let us switch off the gas oven.

We will serve hot with plain rice. We also had on the side palonger dal / spinach lentil curry; til bata diye jhinge aloo / ridge gourd and potato in sesame paste; begun aloo diye palong shaak on that day.