RUI MAACH ER DIM CURRY

FISH ROE / EGG; MAACH ER DIM COMES FOR FREE WITH THE FISH FOR US! IT IS QUITE PRICEY FOR THE NATIVES HERE BEEN SOLD SEPARATELY!

Since childhood; I have heard the veterans saying; once the fish starts carrying eggs, it loses it's taste. But the FISH EGG itself is so tasty that we accept a little compromise with the taste of the fish to enjoy dishes with the FISH ROE; that comes free with the fish variety we are getting! Except for the roe of a Hilsa / Ilish; I do not think any other fish roe is sold separately in Bengali wet markets! HILSA FISH EGG is considered the king or the queen among us; next features the BENGAL CARP EGGS. I enjoy various other fish roes; of "tyangra, puti, koi, magur, parshe"! In a foreign land, I do not get to do the very minute  FAMILY RECIPES; like a lesser known "bhora borshar dim bhora puti maach er tetul tok"! If so, I would not have got the time to blog about a cake or a noodle dish! These days, the memory bank gets me to all these stuffs; "shim er bichi, aloo diye dim bhora magur er makha makha"! One has to get the raw materials to cook and blog about them! I try utmost to at least add to the blog the BENGALI RECIPES that are possible with the produce we get here! Here is one such with the BENGALI ROHU EGG. This RUI MAACH ER DIM CURRY is commonly made in BENGALI HOMES!

WHAT IS RUI MAACH ER DIM CURRY? 

MAACH ER DIM is FISH ROE; the most commonly available in the Bengali Wet Markets is that of the BENGAL CARP varieties'! ROHU / RUI is from the CARP FAMILY! Our families do a few recipes with fish eggs. We do fritters of it; then a fry with vegetables like okra, pumpkin, potatoes and this rustic curry with the FISH EGG FRITTERS & POTATOES! In the family, this NON-VEGETARIAN CURRY is considered an extra dish; we must have a fish  or meat curry, lentil curry, a vegetables dish to go with it! However, we are extremely fond of a fish roe of our choice. If the fish roe fritters are hard outside and little soft inside [you cannot ever get them crunchy]; in the curry; it gets juicer; a pleasure in every bite if you savour it! It is an usual GLUTEN-FREE curry done with tomatoes, potatoes, spice powders!

BESIDES RUSTIC FAMILY BENGALI DISHES; WHAT ELSE DO WE EAT?

As I always say, we are open to a variety of food! All day yesterday, we were relaxing at home! We had a chat session with our child; got very sad to know baby won't be coming home this summer; instead will be taking extra classes! We can be sad but cannot disrespect a meticulously made plan; as parents, we can only wish our child, the best! After an afternoon nap; I went out to fetch our dinner. I had got a grilled lamb meal for the senior; got for myself a mushroom soup, I so enjoy. I actually had a plateful of rice for lunch; hence. Anyway, the chicken karaage I had may not be healthy!

 This morning, I had two luchis and a small slice of cake I made playfully yesterday morning! I wish to blog about it. For lunch, I made for myself and Cristine, multigrain atta chapati; we had it with "mochar ghonto & fulkopi"!

Cristine still cannot manage a multigrain atta dough, having which I feel less guilty; Cristine has learnt to prepare perfect luchis that are contaminated with a bit of semolina! An authentic luchi / Bengali poori does not use semolina in it; but this FISH EGG CURRY RECIPE is cent percent Bengali in essence! On that day, we had it with rice and "dhonepata bata sheem & bhindi aloo bhaja"!

INGREDIENTS :

BENGAL CARP FISH ROE / EGG : 300-400 GM

POTATO : 2 MEDIUM SIZED [PEELED & CUBED]

TOMATO : 1 BIG SIZED [CHOPPED]

GINGER PASTE : 2 TBSP

CUMIN POWDER : 2 TSP

CORIANDER POWDER : 1 TSP

RED CHILLI POWDER : 11/2 TSP

TURMERIC POWDER : 1 TSP

CINNAMON POWDER : 1/2 TSP

GREEN CARDAMOM POWDER : 1/4 TSP

CLOVES POWDER : 2-3 PINCH

GREEN CHILLI : 2 [CHOPPED]

ONION : 1 MEDIUM SIZED [CHOPPED]

BAY LEAF : 1

CUMIN SEED : 1/4 TSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

OIL : 4-5 TBSP [WE USE MUSTARD OIL]

PROCEDURE :

Wash the fish roe very well. Cut into smaller pieces and marinate with little amount of salt, turmeric, the chopped & washed onion  & green chillies.

Marinate the peeled, cubed & washed potatoes with salt and turmeric.

Heat the oil in a wok and lightly fry the potato pieces. Take them out! 

Fry the fish roe pieces in batches; to be fried lightly without deep frying! Take them out!

Temper the oil with the cumin seeds & bay leaf! In a bowl, mix together the ginger paste+cumin+coriander+red chilli+some salt+the rest of the turmeric+2tbsp of water.

Add the spice paste to the wok and stir cook at low heat for 2 minutes. Add the cubed and washed tomatoes to it. Stir cook for 2-3 minutes!

Add the lightly fried potatoes to the wok and stir cook for 1/2 a minute. Add 2 coffee mugs of water to it and stir.

Cover cook at minimal heat for 3-4 minutes. Remove the cover, add the fried fish roes, give a stir and simmer the curry at minimal heat, covered for another 4-5 minutes. 

Remove the cover, add the cinnamon+green cardamom+cloves powder, stir and take down after a minute!