FISH AND BENGALIS; CAN BE A NEVER ENDING SUBJECT FOR MANY A NOVELIST!
Fish; rather fresh water fish & Bengalis are intertwined! It was only when we were in middle school that pomfret entered West Bengal's market! Till date, I could not allow pomfret in my life. In our growing up years, we stayed in a big junction station area, DumDum which had a huge wet market; where sting gray was sold; also tortoise meat. Only may be 3-4 times in our lifetime, the two mentioned were bought only to be disliked by us. Stingray only our mother can cook well roasting it for hours in spices. However, I find it a wastage of time to cook it, neither it is wanted here. In this island city, we get to see a lot of sea fish; once in the wet market. No, the sight of stingray or shark do not give me any pleasure! I can take the responsibility and say on behalf of the majority of the Bengalis that sea fish is not our fantasy; specially if we have grown up in and around Kolkata. Only recently, I found out that Bangladesh's favourite "Roopchanda Maach" may be golden pomfret and not the silvery one. The later I can still cook for my family; the golden, grey and black pomfrets, I cannot. I just fall sick for a week, if I do so. These farm bred tyangra, a smaller variety of cat fish are better; even in Kolkata, the actual river water, deshi tyangra are getting rare in sight, so highly priced they got! Though farm bred, I got the tyangras fresh and cooked a very family recipe; they say they had got from Comilla, their ancestral place! The recipe uses green chilli & coriander paste, bottle gourd leaves & stems, broad beans; I call it LAU SHAAK SHEEM DHONEPATA BATA TYANGRA!
ARE YOU SURE YOU DO NOT LIKE SEA FISH?
That I am! Exceptions only prove the law. I may like Bombay duck, sea anchovy and few other smaller sea fish variety but that does not change my stand a bit. Sea Fish varieties have a smell, I cannot tolerate. Bombay Duck I have accepted, the fresh ones started coming to our home only when I was in college or university. We actually were used to having dried Bombay Duck! See, how I stock them at home. They are taking some sun bath, they stay well if given so! I cook it regular, once at least every fifteen days!
What you see above, is a family love. Many years back, the best quality used to come home from Tripura. Our father was an extremely sociable person who kept in touch with the remote family branches settled in Tripura, Assam; even visited Bangladesh in 2000 to meet his school time friends! We do not even know who our relatives are. I last saw few of them in the marriage ceremonies of both sides of our uncles & aunts. My brother is least bothered; but I feel like exploring the thread these days, but how? What I can do is cook and share the family kind of recipes; like this MAACHER JHOL with laushaak, sheem, tyangra maach / LAU SHAAK SHEEM DHONEPATA BATA TYANGRA. The men are not used to this curry but eats without any fuss, I just serve them sans the stems, I eat them all and a bowlful of the curry! If I do not get to eat my kind of sides with the mains, I prefer a dahi poori and ranga aloor puli pithe.
Both the blog posts got updated with new pictures!
PATLA MAACH ER JHOL IS A FAMILY RITUAL; LAU SHAAK SHEEM DHONEPATA BATA TYANGRA; A SMALLER CAT FISH CURRY IS JUST ONE AMONG A COUPLE OF!
I am feeling very tired today, the entire morning I had spent time perfecting a "fuchka poori" and I definitely could nail it like a Kolkata Phuchkawala. I had captured the entire process, soon to share in public. I am actually eating excess; given my age, I am getting more lethargic because of eating more than required! This a problem since childhood! This was an obese girl who loved food, reading fiction, day dreaming, light music and nothing else. If yesterday lunch was with rui maach er jhol & bhaat, at night I wanted some pizza, we got two of them, one chicken pepperoni and one super cheese for 24$ from the Canadian Pizza chain!
Pizza may be destructive but we just love it. I cannot survive on it, my men can. On their three weeks of stay in a hotel last August; they ate only pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, fried rice! I want home cooked food after a week of staying away from home. Any day, I would love staying at home and cooking something like this LAU SHAAK SHEEM DHONEPATA BATA TYANGRA, if only my own understood my mental needs, my agony and be a little nicer towards me. Anyway, I have started getting a bit of clients who think I cook very good mochar ghonto; they have re-ordered the dhonepata diye mushurir dal I had delivered last Saturday and wants a kofta curry too midweek! Life goes on, its good if our digestive system is stronger!
TYANGRA MAACH / A SMALL FRESH WATER CAT FISH VARIETY : 500 GM
YOUNG BOTTLE GOURD LEAVES & STEM : 250-300 GM
BROAD BEAN : 5-6
FRESH CORIANDER PASTE : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP SIZE
GREEN CHILLI PASTE : 1 TBSP
SLITTED GREEN CHILLI : 1-2
RED CHILLI POWDER : 1 TSP
TURMERIC POWDER : 1 TSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
KALOJEEREY / KALONJI / NIGELLA SEED : 1/4 TSP
BAY LEAF : 1
DRY RED CHILLI : 2 [HALVED]
OIL : 2 TBSP
PROCEDURE :
You can see the young bottle gourd leaves and stems. Dressing them is easy but it takes time, not too much!
Tear off the good leaves, chop roughly. Throw off the yellow, dry leaves, if any! Cut the stems finger length size and thinly take off the fibre. Discard the hard joints.
Wash thoroughly taking in a colander, marinate with salt and turmeric. Keep aside for sometime.
Wash and marinate with half of the red chilli, little salt and turmeric. Keep aside!
About the tyangra, best is if you can instruct the vendor how to clean them. Here in this island, they do not cut smaller fish!
Cristine did the cleaning with a scissor. She had cut off the whiskers, fins, tail end, gills. She took off the waste from the stomach and washed them thoroughly!
Thereafter, I marinated the fish with the rest of the red chilli powder, turmeric and salt!
If the fish is fresh and have not been freezed, we do not need to fry them. I did not in this case!
We will add the marinated broad beans and give a stir. We will cover cook them at minimal heat for 3-4 minutes, not letting them to burn.
We will open the cover and add the marinated bottle gourd leaves & stems, give a stir.
We will cover cook at minimal heat for 3-4 minutes. Water will be released.
We will open the cover and add 11/2 coffee mugs of water and bring to boil, uncovered, keeping the heat at low.
We will add the slitted green chillies & the marinated fish along with the marinade, simmer at low to medium heat for 4-5 minutes.
We will add the green chilli and fresh coriander pastes and gently give a stir. We will cook at low heat for another 3-4 minutes.
It is to be had with rice. The other sides; onion stalk+carrot+green peas+potato fry, bottle gourd leaves & stem dal, pointed gourd with chilli+mustard paste can be had with chapati / porota!
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