KANCHAKOLA ALOO DIYE RUI / KATLAR JHOL

 I am too tired to start with a blog post at this time of the day, 5:10pm it is! I walked to the next station earlier the day, called Cristine to catch the train to join me. We see, all the nurseries are relocated to different venues leaving one. I had the news earlier but today we found the job done; only one is still there, the rest are turned on to a green patch of land. As of now, we do not know what the government's future plan is. In this island, this "bhangagora" / construction work goes on. They have money, they maintain it to look like a five star hotel. What I expect is a little bit of space to be left out from urbanisation. I mean when my mind hovers around folk songs, I do not find a matching place where I can sit away from home and enjoy that moment, the particular wish may vanish the next day or the day after. Again, I may get into Bollywood soft romantics, even item numbers while walking in a crowded street.

This is me, predictive or not others can say. I think my moves are very much predictive but I am not a consistent person, nothing is constant in my life except the love for my own. Okay; my love for typical Bengali, fish varieties & dishes is constant; this one with Bengal Carp variety, raw banana , potato and regular kitchen spices KANCHAKOLA ALOO DIYE RUI / KATLAR JHOL has to feature! I could have done way more fish shares with a variety of fish but I do not get them as fresh here. I like to write my blog posts, else you would have seen me sleeping now! We felt tired looking for the new venue of the nurseries; some has been relocated in the same area but we could not find in a hurry; others went to quiet far. I finally decided to buy the pots, soil, fertiliser from the existing shop; The sister at the counter and the brother who chooses the soil for me or get me the tubs are friendly. This guy can be a Southern Indian or a Bangladeshi; while talking to him, I missed that particular Bangladeshi guy who sat in another shop beside. The sister has given me a printed leaflet, I have to see which shop went where. 

Me and Cristine had sugarcane juice & my favourite chives kueh. Look at the table, we wiped it with an antiseptic wet tissue before sitting there. We cannot have lunch right? There are certain people who will not heat the food, take on the plate and eat, we have to serve everything; when I just served hot, people start calling colleagues. Arey, there should be something called lunch break; I get irritated. I did nothing but instructed Cristine and got tired; she did all the work of repotting. I had to write an easy and extremely favourite fish recipe today like this one with rui ba katla, kanchakola, aloo aar shadharon moshola; KANCHAKOLA ALOO DIYE RUI / KATLAR JHOL.

Thereafter, we both took shower and had our lunch.

INGREDIENTS :

ANY BENGAL CARP VARIETY [BIG OR EVEN BABY] : 6-8 STEAK [using fresh fish is recommended]

RAW BANANA : 1 STANDARD SIZED

POTATO : 1 BIG

SLITTED GREEN CHILLI : 2-3

CUMIN SEED : 1/4 TSP

BAY LEAF : 1

TURMERIC POWDER : 1 TSP

CUMIN POWDER : 1 TSP

CORIANDER POWDER : 1/3 TSP

RED CHILLI POWDER : 2 TSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

OIL : 5-6 TBSP [I ALWAYS USE MUSTARD OIL FOR THE FAMILY BENGALI DISHES]

PROCEDURE :

Clean & wash the fish steaks. Drain the water, rub with salt & turmeric; keep aside for 10 minutes.

Take out the skin of the potato & raw banana, wash and cut as you wish. Rub with salt & turmeric; keep aside for 5 minutes.

In a bowl, take the rest of the turmeric, little salt, cumin powder, coriander powder, red chilli powder; add little water and mix to get a paste.

Heat oil in the wok and fry the raw banana & potato pieces in batches. Take out on a plate.

Fry the fish steaks lightly and take them out.

Temper the oil with the cumin seeds & a bay leaf. Add the spice paste and stir cook at low heat for 3-4 minutes. Add 2 coffee mugs of water and give a stir.

Bring the curry to boil at low heat; let it boil for 3-4 minutes. Add the fish pieces and cover cook at minimal heat for 4 minutes.

Open cover, turn over the fish and add the fried potato & raw banana pieces, slitted green chillies. Cover cook at low heat for another 3-4 minutes.

We should be done. Have it with rice. On that day, we also had eggplant-potato-okra fry, broad beans with coriander paste, lentil curry, chilli-coriander paste on the side; all Bengali items.