ILISH MACH / HILSA SHAD; TOPS THE LIST OF FISH BENGAL LOVES!
I am not a feminist, so I would call it the queen or king of the Bengali fish mongers.I may not call it the crown prince or princess, to me it feels HILSA is a matured thing, it also tastes better when bigger! I am not always able to buy the best quality of ILISH as I am not as generous as an average Bengali would be whilst in the fish market. We were brought up in a humble environment where we had fish every day and meat over the weekend! Most of the days, there would be a bigger fish curry & something with a smaller fish variety, a dal, vegetables, spinach! A fritter & chutney would have completed the BENGALI PLATTER!In our rented home of nineteen years, the window curtains were faded, the sofa sets' spring got spoilt but fish & meat were regular on our plate! Going to the market every day to buy meat & fish was a ritual and it is still for many in Bengal!I closely know families and family branches who had lesser financial abilities than our family but ate better and treated guests royally!The thing is we need not have had faded curtains & broken sofa sets, we were better of but its the mentality of the family heads who did not find it necessary to spend on these areas or they lacked aesthetic sense!The reason why both of us siblings lack that sense, but we eat well!I have given humble upbringing to the son too!He was never a demanding child. When his father sailed, mumma would take him out over the weekends to either Macdonalds, Pizza Hut or KFC! Food & a Leo Toy Car would make him happy! I wish he makes me feel that closer to him today too!
MONDAY VOWS; IF ANY?
Yes, I have taken a vow which I do not know if I can maintain now onwards! My home does not have a single biscuit or cookie, I had packed all the remaining ones for Cristine's friends yesterday! It is not so I would not have them at all! I would get smaller packets at intervals and would not store beyond two to three days!As of now, this is the plan but I do not know if I can keep the promise made to myself!I did not eat outside food since last Friday!Sunday lunch was with jeera rice made from leftover rice & bhature from Saturday night's leftover dough! We had both with mutton and soybean curry!
I cooked savoury pancakes for myself!
From today onwards, the man is off to the office! I went for a walk!Once back, we were re-arranging our tiny plant kingdom.
WHAT IS THIS SHORSHE CHARMOGOJ BEGUN ILISH?
What is ILISH? It is Bengal's most loved fish; Does HILSA belong to the Shad Family? BEGUN is EGGPLANT / BRINJAL in Bengali! SHORSHE is BLACK MUSTARD SEEDS & CHARMOGOJ is MELON SEEDS! Earlier, I have used the same SPICE MIX for cooking Pabda fish, this time its with our most loved FISH! So, SHORSHE CHARMOGOJ BEGUN ILISH is a BENGALI STYLE FISH CURRY / MACH ER JHOL with HILSA, EGGPLANT cooked in a CURRY BASE using a paste made of black mustard, charmogoj, green chillies!I am against using many combinations of spices when it comes to Ilish. If the fish is of good quality, its oil takes the major role of a taste enhancer and requires only few spices to make it a GLUTEN-FREE delight!
INGREDIENTS :
HILSA / ILISH MACH : 6-8 STEAK
EGGPLANT : 3-4 SMALL SIZED
GREEN CHILLI : 4-5
BLACK MUSTARD SEED : 1TBSP
MELON SEED : 1TSP
TURMERIC POWDER : 1TSP
NIGELLA SEED / KALOJEEREY : 1/2TSP
BAY LEAF : 1
ICE CUBE : 2-3
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 3TBSP [I USED MUSTARD OIL]
PROCEDURE :
Clean the fish steaks well, they have scales a lot. Wash each piece well!
Marinate the fish steaks with some turmeric powder & salt!
Cut half the egg plants, wash and marinate with some salt!
We will wash the black mustard seeds & melon seeds taken in a strainer and soak for an hour. Thereafter, we will blend both to a paste along with the washed green chillies & salt; adding some water & the ice cubes to the blender!This way the black mustard seeds won't taste bitter.
We will heat the oil in a wok & temper it with the nigella seeds & bay leaf! Giving a stir, we will add the spice paste and stir cook for half a minute. We will add 2 coffee mugs of water, give a stir!
We will bring it to a boil keeping the heat at low.After it has boiled for 2-3 minutes, we will gently add the marinated fish & eggplant pieces!
We will cook them at low heat for 5-6 minutes or until done. Towards the end, we will add few slitted green chillies & adjust the salt!
We will have it with plain, pipping hot rice! What we had alongside are aloo-potol er dalna, begun-aloo diye palong shaak, tomato diye mushurir dal!
I think weather looks very nice there. We have had heavy Rain and weather turned to really cool (coldish) for about last 7-8 days. Dear friend! Recipe you shared in this post really so new for me. Looks very different fish base dish. Bye the way, here in Turkey, fish season just beginning and we are looking forward to new and fresh fish from the "Black Sea".
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