Sorso Bhaate Maach (Bengal) Fish in Mustard Gravy.

To be honest I have never eaten Bengali food (other then the yummy Bengali sweets). So when I got to know that Regional Cuisine of India is Bengal this month, I kept thinking hmm, what can I submit? I know Bengali’s love fish. I thought this is the best time for me to use the fish in the freezer (hubby dear doesn’t like fish, so I rarely get a chance to make it and since he is traveling on work…it is time to defrost the fish). I also know that mustard is a favorite spice and both mustard seeds and oil are used widely in Bengali cuisine.

So, I went about searching for a good recipe, instead of looking online, I went through the many cookbooks that I treasure in my kitchen. This recipe is adapted from Camellia Panjabi’s 50 Great Curries of India. In the book she says that this is the dish-célebré of Bengali cuisine, and the preferred dish is bony Hilsa(Tenulosa Ilisha). The traditional recipe imparts a rather strong flavor, so she has improved the dish with the inclusion of tomato and little lime juice. You can use fish such as Cod, Halibut, Turbot or Monkfish. I used Tilapia fillets for this recipe.

Serves 2 - 4

Ingredients:

• 1lb 5 oz piece of fish
• 1 ¾ tsp salt
• 2 tbsp poppy seeds
• 2 tbsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 2oz/60g fresh grated coconut
• ¾’ ginger
• 6 garlic cloves
• 2 green chilies (or more)
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• 2 tsp cumin powder
• 1 -1/2 red chili powder
• 5 tbsp oil (I used 1-2 tbsp)
• 3 tomatoes pureed (I used 1 cup tomato sauce)
• Juice of ½ lime
• 2 tbsp coriander leaves

Method:

Wash the fish thoroughly. Smear each piece with a little salt and leave for half an hour.
Toast poppy seeds for 2 minutes on a griddle on low heat. Then pound in a motor and pestle, with a little water. (I toasted the poppy and mustard seeds together and did the next step).
Grind together the crushed poppy seeds, the mustard seeds, turmeric, coconut, ginger, garlic, green chilies, onion, coriander, cumin, red chili powder and 1 ¼ tsp salt, along with ½ cup water, to make a paste.
In a large frying pan heat the oil over moderate heat and fry the spice paste for 6-7 minutes, stirring continuously and adding a little water at a time (up to ½ cup) as and when required.
Add the tomatoes and sauté for 3 minutes adding 2/3 tbsp water of required. Then pour in 2 cups water and the lime juice and simmer for 5 minutes on low heat. Adjust seasoning.
Add the fish pieces and cook until done. Sprinkle with fresh coriander leaves when serving. This dish traditionally eaten with rice.

Khandvi

This is one of my favorite teatime snacks, I used to have it at my gujju friends' place when I was growing up in Mumbai. It also used to be my favorite shopping snack, ie, my snack of choice when out shopping.

I tried making Khandvi a few times at home, whenever I craved for it. However, to my disappointment, it was always a big flop. I could get the taste right, but would never be able to roll it. In the end I would eat the shapeless flops as they were.

The key to making Khandvi is to get the batter to the right consistency and to get it to roll (like a Swiss roll). So since this month, Gujrati cuisine is the theme of Regional Cuisine of India (RCI) (hosted by Mythili @ Vindu), I thought this is the perfect time for me to give this yummy dish a try. I started my search online to get the right recipe. I came across this recipe from the easy cook book blog by Preeti and Sachin. I used garlic red chili paste instead of ginger garlic paste.

Khandvi has a soft texture that melts in your mouth. The buttery taste comes from the yogurt; the chili paste gives it a mild kick. The sweet crunchy grated coconut along with the mustard and fresh coriander makes this dish perfect for a teatime snack.

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup yogurt
• ¼ cup besan/gram flour
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp hing/Asaefoetida
• 1 tsp garlic and red chili paste
• ¼ tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp sugar
• Salt to taste
• Oil

Tempering:

• ½ tsp mustard seeds
• a pinch or two of dried red chili flakes (optional) or few green chilies slit horizontally
  

Garnish:

• 2 tsp grated coconut
• ½ tsp sesame seeds
• Chopped coriander

Method:

Use a balloon whisk to beat the yogurt, water and gram flour. Make sure there are no lumps in the batter. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

Grease 2-3 plates or thali’s and keep aside.

Heat the batter in a pot(preferably a non-stick) on a low flame. Stirring continuously (I used my trusty silicone balloon whisk). Stir it for around 7-8 minutes until the batter thickens and starts to coat the whisk.
Spread the mixture on the greased plates in a circular motion (as when you make a dosa). Let it cool. It is important that the mixture should be cool - around 10 minutes. This is where I was impatient and went wrong when I made it earlier and the whole thing flopped.

Roll the Khandvi and cut it in bite size pieces. Arrange them in a serving dish.

Tempering:

Heat oil and add the mustard seeds. When the seeds pop, add the chili flakes (optional). Turn off the heat and pour over the Khandvi. Garnish with gated coconut, sesame seeds, and chopped coriander.