MAHALAYA & HILSA INDEED TUNES WELL!
Today, early morning Pitrupaksh / Pitripokkho ended to usher in Durga Puja! The Mother with her four kids, two boys & two daughters are to visit her parental home, on this humble earth! In our family home, the scenario was always like this since 1983-84, the father went to the Holy Ganges for "Tarpon" where the forefathers are paid homage to for their smooth transition to the heaven. They say, during this period, the dead come near the earth to their family, that they need to be sent back to their present stay with honour! The male heir has to do it, our father was doing since 1983-84, now bhai does! Today too, there in our Barrackpore home Ranjit Thakurmoshai came as early at 3.30am-4am to get bhai do the rituals! This year too the brother stayed away from going to the Holy Ganges. During our stay in DumDum, the daddy used to go to the Cossipore Ghat, later to the Ganga Ghat in Barrackpore, now its bhai's turn to carry on! What I wished for is to get a HOMELY BENGALI FOOD PLATTER to the blog on this day, something my forefathers would want to have for their lunch & dinner. In that platter, the shinning NON-VEGETARIAN FISH DISH can best be a HILSA / ILISH!
WHY ARE PEOPLE FIGHTING OVER A TRIVIAL ISSUE WHETHER THIS DAY IS HAPPY OR NOT?
Although, Mahalaya is the day when the males in the family pay homage to the ancestors; many of us remember it as a bright autumnal day ushering in the festival of Durga Puja! We would be still half asleep when the daddy would get back home done with the rituals. Our morning started with perhaps the "kochuri, jilipi, aloor torkari" Pops got with him from Chiria More or Dum Dum! Even on the Mahalaya day, Mani was busy thorough cleaning of our home for pujo purpose! We were already into the happy, pujo vibes wearing a new cloth post shower. Durga pujo started for us !It is wrong to say we remain clumsy, sad on this day thinking of the dead! I always maintain, if they lived their life full and leave at a ripe age; we need not go to depression. We will feel sad reminiscing the bygone days, is natural. Like today, I cooked DANADER / DANADAR, the existing picture was good but it was not really the mentioned sweet!
I cooked another goodie to get to the blog on Bijoya Dashami! I used less amount of sugar. In the present day, I would not have blogged about a Danadar, the family never bought it; its a poison for me, us! I prepare sweets less ever since the son left for his college.When I do, I do not go traditional, I heavily put a curb on the use of sugar!
WHAT IS ILISH MACH ER TOK?
As I always say, my family is never experimental with HILSA FISH / HILSA SHAD from the Herring Family! It is a pricey fish, they did not / do not get every other day! Whilst my mother is prone to cook it with chilli-mustard paste or with cumin-green chilli or making it stale to cook wrapped in pumpkin or bottle gourd leaves; the in-law's home loves the "kalojeerey, kancha lanka begun ilish. HILSA FRY is uniformly loved in every Bengali home! Later, the man, his sister & father got allergic to egg plant, also my brother. I don't know when can our son have "begun bhaja diye luchi-porota or bhaat-dal-begun bhaja"! ILISH MACH ER TOK is a SOUR FISH CURRY with ILISH MACH! I have used raw mango, it can also be done with tamarind, elephant apple, dried raw mango! This NON VEG, GLUTEN-FREE FISH CURRY is definitely a family recipe but was done rarely in our home. My family in Assam does it perhaps! Mashimoni, mani's middle sister makes it every season I know! I cannot recall every incident from the past, cannot exactly remember if the maternal grandmother did an "illish mach er tok or ilish mach er dim er tok"! Mashimoni talked about it a lot, I did not have it in her home! Although, I make my man & son eat sour fish curries, in case of hilsa, I spare them, Bengalis consider it an exclusive fish! For the rest, I cooked the "kalojeerey kanchalanka ilish".There also was "laal shaak, puishaak-kumro-aloo-begun, dal!" We love simple, Bengali fair. I had fermented rice with potato-onion fry yesterday, for lunch! Today, it was porota, kali dal and a danadar!
ILISH MACH / HILSA SHAD : 4-5 STEAK
RAW MANGO : 5-6 CUBE
SLITTED GREEN CHILLI : 2-3
RED CHILLI POWDER : 1 TSP
TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2 TSP
RADHUNI / AJMOD /CARUM ROXBURGHIANUM SEED : 2 PINCH
BLACK MUSTARD SEED : A PINCH OR TWO
BAY LEAF : 1
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 2 TBSP [WE ALWAYS USE MUSTARD OIL]
PROCEDURE :
We will get rid of any scale in the fish steaks and wash them well.
We will drain all of the water, marinate them with salt, some turmeric & all of the red chilli powder.
We will marinate the peeled, washed mango cubes with a little of salt & turmeric!
We will heat the oil in the wok & temper it with the bay leaf, radhuni, black mustard seeds.
We will add 2 coffee mugs of water and bring it to boil! We will add the washed & slitted green chillies and a little of turmeric powder!
After the gravy has boiled for 5-6 minutes, we will add the fish steaks along with the marinade, the marinated mango pieces.
We will simmer it covered, at low heat for 7-8 minutes or a little more!
It tastes the best the next day of cooking it!
Our Blacksea and Marmara Sea has had pollution and we are really very worry about the fish. We try to buy fish come from abroad. This recipe you shared very different. Fish base dishes are my favourite and this recipe looks very healthy.
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