This is the kind of meal we have on a daily basis; very humble & simple. When it comes to serving everyday meal on the family's plate; I have not changed much. I cook & serve my family what I grew up eating. I purposefully did not change the food pattern in my home and the rest at home is fine with it. They just do not eat few things. If I can take care of that, they do not trouble me much, they gladly have a FISH CURRY / MAACHER JHOL as this one; SHEEM ALOO DHONEPATA BATA DIYE RUI BA KATLA MAACHER JHOL. This is a WINTER TIME RECIPE, done in my side of the family. Adding fresh coriander paste to VEGETARIAN & NON-VEGETARIAN curries is not very common among the BENGALIS, as is adding chopped coriander is. What once was a winter time dish, depending on the availability of fresh coriander; became regular in my home these days because getting in hand DHONEPATA / FRESH CORIANDER is no big deal. This CURRY uses only green chilli paste, turmeric & chilli powder as spices besides fresh coriander paste.
I remember, during winter, I loved bowlful of this curry, after been done with having the fish and vegetables in it. Though, we get fresh coriander throughout the year these days, I do not find that lost flavour of it we used to get from it during winters; the same applies to the taste of cauliflower; Taiwan cauliflower tastes near "shitkaleen fulkopi" of those days. Its not only about nostalgia, it indeed is lot about the taste of the vegetables and fish, even eggs. Taste of duck eggs do not remain the same; vegetables and fish too have become lesser in taste due to the heavy use of pesticides; mixed breed with regards to fish; farm bred fish was never eaten in my entire family earlier. This particular curry using fresh coriander paste SHEEM ALOO DHONEPATA BATA DIYE RUI BA KATLA MAACHER JHOL is what my family claims to be exclusive of their native place; Comilla. I do not know about the authenticity of their claim, so want more insights on it.
My in-law's side, like other Bengali families use chopped coriander in cooking, but do not use CORIANDER PASTE in cooking as does mine. However, when I cook it or each time my mother packed for them this particular fish curry; they have eaten gladly. Else, they are very limited in their choice of food. This family curry of our's is non unknown to my readers; earlier I have shared similar recipes with other FISH & SEAFOOD varieties. We usually do it with live, fresh water catches. My personal choice for this curry is fresh baby carp / chara pona. The men at home cannot have boney fish, neither it is available fresh in the island; hence I chose a 2 kg sized fresh Bengal Carp; RUI MAACH OR KATLA MAACH. You can see, we also had "panchphoron diye kancha moong er dal o bhindi aloo bhaja" alongside.
Since it's childhood; I have fed my not so Bengali child all these food; it did not refuse altogether. Now that it has got wings to move freely; it is having burger and pizza almost every day. I am against it. Our's is an Indian system; we can have a GLUTEN-FREE FISH CURRY SHEEM ALOO DHONEPATA BATA DIYE RUI BA KATLA MAACHER JHOL every day but not those cheesy stuffs; they can be a weekly once pleasure for us. For this curry, we use four kind of vegetables; radish, eggplant, broad bean and potato and the fish varieties used are baby carps, aar maach / long whiskered cat fish or bigger Bengal carps preferably not more than one kilogram of weight, smaller cat fish like tyangra. The idea is to do it with fat & oil free, live fish; we do not fry the fish in this curry.
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