ILISH KANCHAKOLAR JHOL

 

MY UNCONDITIONAL LOVE AFFAIR WITH ILISH / HILSA!

Sounds cliched but Ilish indeed is Bengal's emotion, among few other. I enjoy any cartoonist's depiction of a Bengali Babu holding a big "Ilish and doi-mishtir hnari" in his hands. Its about to be two years I haven't been to Kolkata; yet Bengal's picture remains vivid on your mind! Little details of a Bengali life I like visualising sitting on the couch! Say, an earthen pot filled with half & half roshogolla & pantua / sweets in sugar syrup! In our home, it was always more of roshogolla & less of pantua! The younger me disliked roshogolla that was so regular in our home, say weekly thrice? The present day me just crave for a combination of "roshogolla & ruti"; not today, but tomorrow is the birthday of someone in the family who till date loves it and "porota with butter & onion"! As I say, I have taken the parents' route with regards to food habits. Coming to ilish, it's the love of a majority of the Bengalis; one who can afford, also of the one who cannot! It is true Hilsa weighing below a kilogram does not taste the best but can every Bengali afford to buy a two thousand rupees worth hilsa at least few days the entire season? The family I hail from is humble and known for the calculative measures of our parents; we have grown up eating a 800-900 gm of Hilsa mostly and may be two-three days per season, a bigger 1kg 200gm of weight! Me or the brother had no problem with that and our parents should be happy that we have not taken to show offs! Until now, our son too has not shown any sign of extravagance! If the marriage has benefitted the senior any way; then it his tendency towards savings; not doing extravagant expenditures to be at par with his peers! I really do not know if he speaks any good about me to anyone! But we enjoy a meal of Hilsa / Ilish together!

I HEAR THERE ARE 101 HILSA RECIPES; MY FAMILY COOKS A FEW!

Once someone told or may be I have read in the Bengali magazine Sananda that there are over hundred known recipes with ilish Bangladesh cooks. Both of our families have their origin in Bangladesh but we cook limited dishes with hilsa; we keep repeat cooking the same few dishes with it and we never get bored eating this fish! It is me who try new dishes with this FAMOUS BENGALI FISH; mostly CURRIES! What I see around ever since I took to food blogging, I try them in my kitchen if they attract me! Hilsa comes regular to our home, though not the best quality and at times I try with it the recipes from other homes! In a couple of Bengali food groups & Bengali Bloggers' spaces, I had seen HILSA & RAW BANANA CURRY, it is not done in our family! My family extensively uses raw banana in cooking fish & vegetables, but not in hilsa! Both sides of my family are not so keen on experimenting with Hilsa!

WHAT IS ILISH KANCHAKOLAR JHOL?

WHAT IS ILISH? ILISH / HILSA CAN BE CALLED A TYPE OF INDIAN HERRING! WHAT IS KANCHAKOLA? IT IS RAW BANANA! WHAT IS JHOL? JHOL IS CURRY! Ilish is a boney fish, extremely good in taste if you consider an average Bengali's taste bud! They taste the best if weighing above one kilogram but I do not mind getting an 800-900 gm of weight! The regret is the inability to get the fresh catches of the Indian or Bangladeshi variety! What we get are the frozen stuffs coming from Myanmar! Some days, I find them very tasty, some days, I get irritated! My inability to adapt to the sea fish varieties is causing me trouble. Its been long I did not get salmon for the man, I have to soon! Who knows if the son is buying salmon for himself at times! He is not at all keen on telling us anything in details! Anyway, it was in 2019, I cooked Hilsa with Raw Banana! This ILISH KANCHAKOLAR JHOL is a GLUTEN-FREE, BENGALI FISH RECIPE! Thereafter, it was cooked yesterday evening! But we will have the curry for Saturday lunch! Yesterday, after the cooking I had the following dinner!

No regrets! I thoroughly enjoyed my meal! I do like a few soup varieties like the mother, but my day remains incomplete if I do not eat a soupy Bengali Dal / lentil curry! At this time, I am eating these; an apple pie & a chocolate sunday! I dislike burgers though! For me, buns are to eat with tea & coffee!

INGREDIENTS :

HILSA STEAKS : 5-6

RAW BANANA : 1 STANDARD SIZED

NIGELLA SEED : 1/4 TSP

BAY LEAF : 1

SLITTED GREEN CHILLI : 2-3

GINGER PASTE : 1 TSP

RED CHILLI POWDER : 1/2 TSP

CUMIN POWDER : 1 TSP

CORIANDER POWDER : 1/2 TSP

TURMERIC POWDER : 1 TSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

OIL : 4 TBSP [WE ALWAYS USE MUSTARD OIL]

PROCEDURE :

We will wash the fish steaks well after cleaning the stomach, scales!

We will rub pieces with some salt & turmeric!

We will cut the raw banana lengthwise into 8 pieces after peeling off and discarding the two ends! We need to wash the pieces and marinate with a little of turmeric and salt!

We will heat the oil in a wok and fry the raw banana pieces until brown! We will take them out!

In the same oil, we will lightly fry the hilsa steaks; both sides light brown.

We will take them out on a plate!

We will temper the oil with the nigella seeds, bay leaf and the slitted green chillies!

We have prepared a paste with the ginger paste + red chilli powder + cumin powder + coriander powder + rest of the turmeric powder + salt; adding 2 tbsp of water to it!

I did not require all of the paste! I added half of it and stir fried at minimal heat for 2 minutes! 

We need to add a coffee mug of water thereafter and bring to a boil!

After the curry had boiled for a minute or two at low heat, we have to add the fried raw banana pieces!

After they have boiled for 2-3 minutes at low heat; we will add the fish pieces! 

We will boil the curry at low heat for 2-3 minutes and we should be done!

You can see we also cooked some dal, fresh chana / paneer kebabs alongside to complete the Bengali platter!