ILISH ER MATHA DIYE KOCHUR SHAK

IT IS PLEASURE TO BLOG ABOUT A FAMILY RECIPE!

It seems I did not blog about a family recipe for over a month!  No one would want to cook for hours, document, preserve? After me, no one in the family would want to cook a dish with Taro Leaves! They would cook in a jiffy a pasta bowl or order a pizza! I however like a pizza; I indeed had a pasta lunch, I wish to blog about it, hence would not share the picture now! I am feeling too lethargic these days, so much so that I did not go out of home since last Monday! My exercise was been only swimming, today it was dancing! I was caught up with few things. How did I become such disorganised having no time sense? As a child, we were put through rigorous discipline. It was after shifting to our Barrackpore Home that the discipline was lagging! The retired father enjoyed his sleep anytime of the day; Bhai was more hooked to the freedom T's home offered! The Barrackpore home is big enough, the mother's physical labour multiplied! But Kochur Shak did happen in our rented home in DumDum, it still happens in our Barrackpore Home! Bhai eats I think on days the mother cooks. It is not something Bengali Homes in the urban area would cook every week. It is tough to spend much of time dressing and cooking Taro Leaves / Kochur Shak in an urban set up! Every wet market would sell it in Bengal, leaving some posh areas or non-Bengali speaking localities!

DO MY MEN ENJOY  KOCHUR SHAK BOWL?

I never had seen T's mother doing it, she did not like cooking, would not spend hours cooking one dish! T eats when I cook, the son used to whilst at home if mumma mixed it with rice sans any trace of the fish head! Basically, he or both of them do not understand most of the time what Bengali Food I am feeding them. They are less fussy about food, what they totally detest, they would not touch twice. They say, it is good to have Taro / Yam varieties; it removes impurities from the blood. I read & research less; I eat every part of Taro because I love it; my family cooked  a variety of recipes with it! One of my paternal aunt, Chomma I call; our father's middle brother's wife cooks a unique "kochur spring bhaja", cuts a yam in such a way it stretches like a spring after frying! No one else in the family can do that cut! She looks like a mix of Poonam Dhillon & Jaya Prada, is an amazing cook! She stays in Nowgong, Assam; else I would have seen how she cuts it! My side of the family has a variety of rustic recipes in their repertoire! I have never visited the Tripura & Cooch Behar chapter of the family related to the father. The father travelled there alone; the mother never had any interest in building relationships; she was happy with her own home, her parents, siblings, our father's two younger brothers! All of these family members would enjoy rice & kochur shak any day!

WHAT IS ILISH ER MATHA DIYE KOCHUR SHAAK?

Ilisher Matha means Hilsa Fish Head! We cook it with various vegetable and lentil varieties. Today's blogpost is about the Hilsa head cooked with the Taro Greens! ILISH ER MATHA DIYE KOCHUR SHAK is a family, gluten-free, non-vegetarian recipe with Colocasia Roots, Greens and Hilsa Fish Head! It can be done using Shad Fish or Chinese Gizzard Shad head & bones! For the Bengalis like us who enjoy Bengali Food that are rustic, almost going to be extinct due to urbanisation, must keep such recipes alive! It takes some time to dress and boil them, the rest is not much of a hassle. Cristine dresses the greens for me. You must wear hand gloves all through until they are boiled. The contact with any part of Taro may cause itching! The Filipino shared their recipe with Taro Greens, I may cook and share that recipe too, some day!

My evening tea / coffee time has arrived! Cristine got potato patty instead of chicken! She got bored with our black coffee and got Nescafe sachets box for herself, I share her's often! I have to finish sooner, I have to cook Radhaballavi & Potato Green Pea Curry for dinner!

INGREDIENTS :

TARO / COLOCASIA GREENS : 7-10 STALKS

HILSA HEAD : 1

SLITTED GREEN CHILLI : 3-4

CUMIN POWDER : 2 TSP

CORIANDER POWDER : 1TSP

RED CHILLI POWDER : 1 TSP

TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2 TSP

CUMIN SEED : 1/4 TSP

HALVED RED CHILLI : 2-3

BAY LEAF : 1 OR 2

TAMARIND EXTRACT : 2 TBSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

SUGAR : 2 TSP

OIL : 2-3 TBSP [WE USE MUSTARD OIL]

PROCEDURE : 

The toughest part of Cooking this recipe is dressing the taro greens. The rest of the cooking is easy! Cristine did this part! The skin fibre is to be taken out; the two ends are to be discarded; then chopped roughly. You must wear hand gloves, else it itches to hell!

Once dressed, we need to wash them thoroughly under running water, add enough water to the vessel and put for boil, covered with a lid! 

It takes a pretty good time for them to get boiled in low heat! Once done, we would strain the water. At this stage, we are free to touch it, itching won't happen after boiling!

Thereafter, we would cut the fish head into smaller pieces, wash well and marinate with salt & turmeric. We need to heat the oil in the wok & deep fry them! 

After taking out the fried fish head pieces; we would temper the remaining oil with the cumin seeds, bay leaf & the halved dry red chillies!

We need to add the boiled colocasia greens+the cumin+coriander+red chilli+rest of the turmeric powders+salt+the slitted green chillies to the wok and fold in well! Thereafter, we need to cook the entire thing at low heat, covered and stir occasionally in between!

After about 12-14 minutes; we would add 1/2 tsp of tamarind to 1/4 small bowl of water, strain, add the extract to the wok and the sugar! I used brown sugar!

We would fold in well, add the fried fish head! We would stir and let cook until all of the water has dried! It would be mushy in texture!

It is an authentic Bengali recipe, mainly brought to West Bengal whilst our forefathers migrated from East Bengal, now Bangladesh! It is to be had only with plain rice! What you see alongside are "lobia curry, aloo potol er dalna, aloo diye murgir jhol"!