Kachki Maach er Charchari

Kechki Maach er Charchari | Small fish like Minnow or white bait cooked with potatoes and eggplant 

Kechki, Kachki or Kaski is a tiny, shimmering like silver fish that is very commonly found in freshwater ponds, streams and rivers of rural Bengal. They are really tiny, even smaller than the mourala fish.  These small fishes have such soft bones that they are cooked and eaten whole. Full of vitamins and nutrients they are very popular both in Bangladesh and West Bengal.

I think these fishes are farmed now days given that their popularity has soared high and export contributes a big chunk to this fishery business.. However when we lived in this small town by the river Ganga where the river swelled and rode high during the rainy season, the river water brimming with small fishes would spill into narrow streams and canals. This is where a variety of tiny fishes and small shrimps were caught by young kids with pieces of a woven cloth cloth called gamcha. Our house help's young boy often joined that crowd and brought back a lot of shrimp and chyala maach.

Here in the US, far from that small town, I get Kechki or Kaski, in Bangladeshi stores. All cleaned, they come in these small packets or trays in the freezer aisle along with a lot of other small and not-so-small fishes. 

The only time I buy and make this Kechki Charchari is when my mom is here. Surprisingly my mother never made anything with Kechki. Mourala was her limit when limit tended to tiny fish. But she loves all kinds of fish and so likes this Charchari.

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The husband-man’s home is where all the tiny fish charcharis ruled. Though he is not fond of Rui Kaatla type of fish he likes the Kechki Charchari.

He thinks of his Dida and anxiously reminds me to pour mustard oil generously when I cook it. The last time you air fried the Kechki, the Charchari didn’t taste as good as Dida’s he says.

Of course it didn’t. Nothing tastes as good as nostalgia, glugs of mustard oil and what grandmothers made.

When I poste this photo on FB earlier this week, I got several great recipe ideas. Sharing some for future use

Soupayan Sarkar We first marinate them with chopped onion, julienned potato, kalo jira, salt and turmeric. Then we quick blanch some large laupata. Then make a small potli of fish wrapped with the laupata. Then those potlis are quickly shallow fried. Tastes heavenly with rice.

Cynthia Nelson Here in the Caribbean we call it Nettley 😀 it is seasoned with a fresh herb paste that includes lots of hot pepper and some turmeric and fried crisp. It is usually eaten with dhal, rice and some type of fiery achar. Finger-licking good! 😄

Jayati N

Oh I love this variety.... aam kashundi chorchori....shorshe posto baati chorchori .....dhonepata.kancha.lonka.makha makha ..... tomato.roshun.poda.chatni.type.... pineapple.diye.tok.......narkolbata.shorshe.diye.kumropatay.paturi.... aloo.bodi.diye.patla.jhol.....

Yummmmmmmmm

Shukla Biswas My girls love this fish, either kora Kore bhaja with daal or bati chochhori with sliced potatoes green chilies and onions,and of course a generous tablespoon of shorsher tel just before turning the stove off.

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I made this Kechki Charchari for a bhaiphota lunch few weeks back. Isn't eating a variety of good food is the reason why we have so many festivals right?

I made mostly fish dishes for lunch that day. We started off with Moghlai Parota but then Muri Ghonto, Kechki Charchari, Ilish Bhaape -- was on the lunch menu. Though both my girls are not fond of fish, their "bhaiphota brothers" are true connoisseurs of good food and will happily eat fish. I had added some shrimp, to give the charchari some bite and also to make the charchari more familiar for them. 

Now I don't know how much the brothers liked it, but us, the parents of all the brothers and sisters gorged on the charchari. 

TikTok Salmon Bowl | Honey and Soy glazed Salmon Rice

TikTok Salmon Rice Bowl | Honey and Soy glazed Salmon Rice

This leftover meal commonly eaten in Japanese and Korean households became viral when a Tik Toker Emily Mariko shared a video of her version of this dish. A delightful dish with a lot of umami, this Salmon Rice Bowl is very easy to cook. I learned it from my thirteen year old daughter and while she goes the whole Korean route eating it tucked in seaweed wrappers, I prefer to eat it more like a Bhorta. After all if you step back and look at it with your Bengali eyes, you would call it a Japanese/Korean Salmon Bhorta -- Rice, Flaked Salmon, topped with ingredients common in Korean or Japanese Kitchen!! 

Jump To Recipe

It is amazing the kind of things you learn from your thirteen year old.

Like recently she keeps using the word "Kapow" to declare, that the food that I have just cooked, after toiling for hours over a coal stove with soot in my eyes, is lacking something!!

Last week I had made Motor Dal. It was really good, fragrant with Hing and generous drizzles of Ghee. My mother would have been proud. Even my Mother-in-law would have been proud.

But my all-knowing gourmand said, "But Mummy, it doesn't have something".

"What thing?"

She threw around her hands as if she was a magician sprinkling fairy dust and said "It doesn't have KAPOW!!!"

I rolled my eyes. 

So when this thirteen year old avid Tik-Tok watcher declared she would make a salmon bowl and needed seaweed wrapper, I nodded my head and continued doing what I was doing. I did not want anything ka(n)pa-kapi in my kitchen. Also this is my usual tactic to many of her pleas, which are mostly peppered with requests for Snapchat, iPhone etc etc.

But this was serious. She begged for one chance to make this dish that she saw on TikTok. It was healthy and had salmon as well as rice -- what is there to not like, she argued. Though I do not have blind faith in TikTok like she does, over the last year LS has become quite the chef so I trust her culinary skills.

The weekend that her sister was home, she coerced the older one to get not only seaweed wrappers but also something called Japanese mayo. And then she made the salmon. I did not think much of this TikTok recipe and stayed away from the kitchen. 

However, one taste and I was hooked. It was such a delicious Salmon Rice Bowl. The salmon itself was so tasty. A burst of flavors. 

Umami. 

Total KAPOW!

Now this has become a favorite at our home and is often made by LS.

It is also a very versatile dish. If you do not want the whole shebang, you can just have the salmon, rice and salad.  In that case you need only the salmon, cooked rice and the marinade ingredients.

But at least once you should have the whole rice bowl in the way it should be had. I am sure you will love it.

Ilish Maacher Tauk -- heady memories

Ilish Tauk | Ilish Machher Tok/Ambol | Hilsa Fish Chutney

Chutney, Ambol and Tok are the three different varieties of sour dishes in Bengal, the difference being in the sourness and thickness of the gravy in the dish. While Chutneys are the sweetest with a thick, sticky base, the ambol and tauk/tok are more sour and have a thinner gravy. Of all this, the Tauk(or Tok) is supposed to be the most sour. Since fish is abundant in Bengal, fish often features in a Tok or Ambol. Usually it's the tiny Mourala  which goes in a Tok or the fish head and tail of Hilsa (Ilish Macher Tok).  This tangy stew kinda dish is had as a last course, mixed with rice and supposed to have cooling effects in the hot summer.

Jump To Recipe

Update: This post was originally done in2012. I am updating with new photos and more precise recipe in 2021.

Amidst the umpteen other things that my Dida(maternal grandmother) cooked, there was an Ilish Macchher Tauk. Heads of ambrosial Ilish suspended in a thick, brown, sweet and syrupy liquid that was sweetened with jaggery and soured by ripe tamarind. To call it a "Hilsa Head Chutney" would be plain blasphemy.

It was a backstage kinda dish. I mean while the choicest pieces of Ilish were fried and served as is in a bhaja, the beautiful steak pieces steamed as a bhapa in clinging mustard sauce with fluffed white rice, the fish roe were fried and served with the tel and fresh green chili, the head and the tail led a sad life in waiting.

"Too many bones. Can't eat it", said the young girls in the family with a toss of freshly washed step-cut hair.

"Not enough meat in these pieces", said the grown up men who thought it beneath themselves to be served a lyaja -- a fish tail.

"Rohu heads are better. This has a strong smell", said the younger men, their faces till gentle, their opinion yet not chauvinistic.

And so the matha and the lyaja -- the fish head and the fish tail -- waited in my Dida's kitchen till she was done with the bhaja, the jhaal, the jhol. By then the sun was high up, the crows sitting on the Neem tree outside the kitchen were tired of all the cawing, the neighborhood cat had a princely meal of Ilish fish scales and was patiently waiting by the kaltala for the remains from the men's lunch plates who could never chew on the fish bones. The kaajer mashi--the house help-- Minoti'r Ma was hovering around the back door waiting to see which piece she would be taking home.

Ilish Mach er Tok/Ambol

It was then that my Dida opened up a green lidded plastic jar where lay a block of tamarind, brown, ripe and sticky wrapped in a piece of Bartaman.
The matha and the lyaja heaved relief. They loved the tauk. They loved being in that tangy, sweet liquid where they were the stars of the dish.

Minoti'r Ma stopped fretting and came to sit by the stove. I kept telling Ma that I would have lunch later with Dida and the older women. Dida put the kadahi back on the unoon and poured some more Mustard Oil in it. Minoti'r Ma rubbed the tamarind in a bowl full of water to take out the seeds and make the "kaath". The water slowly turned a deep burnt sienna and the kadhai hissed with scarlet red chili and mustard seeds. The matha and lyaja nudged each other and smiled. Their moment had come. As they bubbled in the tamarind gravy of the tauk sweetened by jaggery I waited patiently for the last course of my meal. The Ilish maacher Matha'r tauk.

My Mother made this tauk way back in March when she was visiting. I merely hovered around in anticipation. She and I are the only ones in the family who will eat this dish nowadays. So I wait for her--to visit us---and amidst many other things to cook me a Ilish Maacher tauk.

Kalo Jeere-Til-Dhonepaata Maach - Nigella-Sesame-Coriander Salmon

KaloJeere-Til-Dhonepaata Maach | Nigella-Sesame-Coriander Salmon

Kalo Jeere (Nigella Seeds) is supposed to alleviate joint pains. Sesame seeds might lower lipid levels. Every spice has a nutritional benefit, other than adding taste and flavor. Taking off from the Bengali favorite Kalo Jeere diye Maacher Jhol, this is a little different salmon dish, cooked in a paste of coriander, nigella seeds and sesame seeds. It really tasted so delicious and is so easy to make that it has found a secure place in my weeknight salmon repertoire. You can play around with the spices and find your perfect fit.

Jump To Recipe

For a long time, I could not figure out what to name this dish ? Was it DKT (Dhonepaata-Kalo Jeere-Til) Maach or KTD (Kalo Jeere-Til-Dhonepata ) Maach? Or was it just Nigella-Sesame-Coriander Salmon? Or was it just a delicious weekday fish?

I think I spent more time in the nomenclature than in cooking this simple dish which definitely tastes more Bengali than it sounds. It owes its origin in parts to my mother, who has been trying to add more of kalo jeere(nigella seeds) to her food once she learned that Kalonji seeds help in alleviating joint pains and aches. 

I had heard of this magical property of Kalonji long back when our babysitter M Nani, from Bangladesh, used to eat Kalo Jeere bhorta ( a paste of roasted nigella seeds, chilies and garlic cooked in little oil) as a side with her meal. However until my mother used the same strategy in fish, it never crossed my mind to do that. My mother also added sesame seeds (til) along with the nigella as she read somewhere that sesame seeds help in controlling cholesterol and has been gently coaxing the husband-man to have sesame seeds in his diet.

This is really a very simple, easy recipe. I haves skipped garlic but you can add it. Play around with the quantity of Nigella and Sesame seeds until you find the best balance. This is what worked for me this time, there was no overpowering taste of kalonji or til. Next time I might increase the amounts a little.

Ma-in-law's Macher Dim er Bora Jhol | Fish Roe Fritters

Maachher Dim er Bora | Bengali Fish Roe Fritters

For fish loving Bengalis, the fish roe or macher dim is a delicacy that they hanker for. Nope we are not talking of caviar! While Ilish maach er dim(Hilsa Fish roe) is the star, the Rui Maach er dim comes a strong second when it is made into fritters or bora. Mostly available during the monsoon season, the fish roe of sweet water fish like Rui or Carp makes a mundane lunch fantastic for the Bengali middle class.

Jump To Recipe

Last Friday Big Sis had her second dose of Covid-19 vaccine and with that all of us eligible for vaccine have been vaccinated. Waiting for Pfizer to give the green light for 12-15 year olds now.

Now the reason I brought up the vaccine is that the pharmacy where BS's vaccine was scheduled was close to a South Asian fish and meat store. So how could I not stop by and get some fish? You tell me! That would be so impolite right?

Now that my mom is here, we have been going more often to the fish store than ever before. This time I stopped by thinking to get the tiny fish called Kaachki or Mola fish. Along with a pack of that tiny fish, I also saw a tray of Rui Maacher Dim -- Fish Roe and picked it up. 

In my home, my Dad was not very adventurous when it came to food and so Ilish Maacher Dim aka Hilsa fish roe was the only fish roe that he enjoyed. Since Hilsa Fish Roe is a star by itself, it is best enjoyed fried as it is and nothing else was ever made out of it. A few times my Mother would get Rui Macher Dim and make the fritters as a snack for me and her to enjoy, but those were few and far in between.

On the other hand, in my in-law's house Maacher Bora and Maacher Tel are very popular. My ma-in-law makes a delicious curry with the fish roe fritters too. 

So when I go the fish roe, I texted her for the recipe. Guess what my 70+ year old Ma-in-law tells me. She said "Search in UTube, oikhane shob ecipe thake". I mean really!! So then I called her and clarified that I wanted her recipe and not "YouTube's". She gave me the recipe of the fritters and then said that I could add it to a peyaaj-roshun deoa jhol like a rich version of fish curry. She also added that her son, who is not very fond of  Rui/Kaatla type of fish actually loves maacher dim!!! 

Gondhoraj Bhetki| Gondhhoraj Fish-- Fish flavored with Lime leaves

Gondhoraj Fish

The first time I had Gondhoraj Bhetki was about seven or eight years back at Oh! Calcutta. Even at that time, Bengali restaurants serving Bengali food in a great ambience was rare and Oh!Calcutta was kind of a trail blazer. I had found the food good enough but the restaurant too expensive. Two things had caught my fancy. One was their Nolen Gur er Ice Cream, I had never had that one before. Second was their Gondhoraj Bhetki. 

Recently, my friend Nandini shared with me her version of Gondhoraj Fish, made with Basa and Kaffir Lime leaves. It was delicious. I took  her recipe from the eastern part of the world and married it with part of my friend Kaushik's recipe of  Fish with Garlic and Lime from the west. The result was so delicious that this has now become one of our favorite fish to cook.

But my question is can I still call this dish Gondhoraj Bhetki if I used neither Gondhoraj nor Bhetki ? The recipe is same and I am sure the flavors hit all the right lime-y notes. The thing is if I wait for the right ingredients I will never cook half of the dishes I have grown up eating!

Gondhoraj Lebu is a special variety of lime which Bengalis are very possessive about. Oblong in shape and a pretty, vibrant lime green in color, it is larger than your regular Indian lime but not very juicy. A wedge of Gondhoraj Lime will yield only a few drops of juice but it is their heady scent that they are most known for. The citrus fragrance of this lime is so potent that it lingers on for hours after you have had your meal.

Originating in Sylhet and the hilly tracts of Chittagong, the gondhoraj is actually a Rangpur lime — a cross between a lime and a mandarin orange. 

Now there is no way that I can get Gondhoraj Lebu here, and even if I do in the freezer of some Bangladeshi store, I do not know if they will still carry their fragrance from the soil of their homeland million miles away. So I settled for the leaves of its distant cousin, Kaffir Lime, which I get in abundance in the Asian stores here.

I could have searched for Baramundi fish(Bhetki Fish) but I didn't and instead settled for what I had in my freezer.

Gondhoraj Fish-- Fish flavored with Kaffir Lime leaves

Fish fillet - Basa or Bhetki or Tilapia

I have used 4 Tilapia Loins each cut in three 2" x 2" pieces (approx. 400 gm of fish)

Marinade 1

Ginger paste - 1&1/2 heaped tsp

Garlic paste - 1 heaped tsp

Lime Juice - 1 Tbsp

Salt - to taste

Marinade 2

Yogurt - 1/2 Cup

Milk - 1/2 Cup

Heavy Cream - 2 Tbsp (for more creamy gravy use 1/3 Cup))

Lime zest - zest from 1 medium lime or half of a big one

Green Chilies - 2 chopped fine or made into paste

For the Gravy

Garlic - 6-8 fat cloves minced

Green Chilies - 4 chopped fine

Kaffir Lime Leaves - 2-3

Sugar - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

Oil - 3 Tbsp Mustard oil or Olive Oil

Wash the fish filet, cut in 2" x 2" pieces, pat dry.

Toss the fish pieces with Marinade 1 as follows

1.5 heaped tsp Ginger paste

1 heaped tsp Garlic paste

1 Tbsp Lime Juice

Salt 

Let it rest for 15-20 mins

In another bowl add the ingredients in Marinade 2

1/2 Cup Yogurt 

1/4 Cup Milk 

2 Tbsp Heavy Cream

Lime zest from 1 small lime or half of a big one

2 Green Chilies chopped fine or made into paste

Take the fish pieces out of Marinade 1 and put in Marinade 2.  Toss it well and let it rest for next 20 minutes.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Warm 2 tablespoon of oil(I used Olive oil. You can use Mustard oil) .

Stir in the minced garlic and the green chilies. Sauté them until you get a beautiful aroma

Remove the fish pieces from the marinade and gently add to the skillet. Cook one side for 3 minutes and then gently flip the fish pieces.

Now pour the marinade into the pan. Cook at medium heat for about 10 minutes.

Add salt and a little sugar to taste and mix it in. Add few Kafir Lime leaves or Gondhoraj Lime leaves. Add couple more green chilies slit at the center. Taste and if you want more citrus flavor add 1 more tsp of Lime juice.

Switch off heat and keep covered for the next 10 minutes. Serve with steaming white rice.

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Kamala Salmon | Salmon cooked with Orange in an Indian Curry

Komola Salmon|Salmon cooked with Oranges and spices

Kamola Katla is a fish dish cooked with fragrant oranges made very popular by the Bengali movie Maacher Jhol. My Kamala Salmon has no relation to our Madame VP and is Salmon cooked with 🍊 oranges in a tangy, spicy Indian Curry

It's been a while since I wrote here. A lot has happened since my last post but I won't go there right now. I just  wanted to write down this recipe so I don't forget. Have you seen the movie? 

If you are a Bengali, you must have seen @pratimdgupta 's famous movie #MaacherJhol. If you haven't, umm...don't know what to say, just watch it. It's either on Netflix or Prime. Even if you are not a Bengali, go ahead and watch it, turn on subtitles. Kamola Katla is a fish dish with oranges made very popular by the Bengali movie Maacher Jhol. 

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So I did not know about *Komola Kaatla* or Kaatla fish cooked with fragrant oranges before this movie. Yes, I probably live under a rock or a world where all our oranges were consumed.

a. As is.

b. In Juice form.

c. In a dessert like Komola Kheer.

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In fact I had never even thought of pairing oranges with fish in an Indian curry until then!

The idea of oranges and fish seemed like a beautiful fragrant pair to try out. Since Salmon is our fish of choice and orange glazed salmon is pretty delicious I decided to make a Komola Salmon almost similar to the Kamola Kaatla. I have cooked this fish curry a few times now with Salmon. The tangy, spicy fish curry with soft morsels of oranges is really delicious and a favorite with my girls ❤

I cook it several different ways. In one option, I bake the salmon and then add to gravy. In another I directly add the fish to gravy and cook in there. Sometimes I add Green Pepper aka Capsicum, on other days Cauliflower. On good days I sprinkle a few sesame seeds and add more orange juice. On others make do with less

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Possibilities are endless with this one. Any which way it's a delicious fish curry and is pretty simple to make.

 

I prep the fish in one of the two ways:

a. Marinate the salmon as instructed in the recipe, bake it with a drizzle of mustard oil at 250F for 25 mins, then add to the gravy and finish cooking there.

b. Marinate the salmon as instructed in the recipe, then add it directly to the pan and cook in the gravy

Kamala Salmon | Salmon cooked with Orange in an Indian Curry

Prep

Make juice of 2 Navel oranges. From each orange, we get about 5 Tbsp or 1/4th cup of Juice

Salmon -- 6 pieces of salmon 3" x 4"

Marinate the salmon with

1 tsp Turmeric powder

1/2 tsp Red chili Powder

salt

2 Tbsp Orange Juice

Keep aside for 15-20 minutes

While salmon is marinating we will get the onion-ginger-garlic masala ready.

Heat up some oil and sauté the following

Onion - 1 medium chopped in large chunks

Ginger - 2" Chopped

Garlic - 6 cloves

Cool and make a paste. This is our onion-ginger-garlic paste

Start Cooking

In the same pan add some more oil. Not much. We like to keep oil low. I have used Avocado or Mustard Oil in this dish, you can use Olive oil or Vegetable Oil.

Temper the oil with

Green Cardamom - 2

Cloves - 2

Cinnamon stick - 1"

Tej Patta/Bay Leaf - 1

Green Chilies - 2 slit

Add the onion-ginger-garlic paste. Sauté for a couple of minutes.

Add 1 Green Capsicum chopped into small pieces.

Add the spices

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Red Chili powder or Kashmiri Mirch - 1/2 tsp

Sprinkle a little water and sauté until the peppers are softened.

If you are cooking the salmon in the gravy, then now add the marinated salmon to the pan, making sure they are all in a single layer. Cook for about 3 minutes. Gently flip the fish pieces.

Now add about 3 Tbsp of Orange Juice + 1/2 Cup of warm water. Gently mix and let the gravy come to a simmer.

Note: If you have baked the salmon then once the gravy starts simmering, you will add the fish to the gravy

Once the gravy starts simmering add

Sugar - 1-2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Orange segments -- about 8 segments from a clementine

At this point taste the  gravy and add about 1/4 Cup more of orange juice for more flavor.

Cook for 3-4 more minutes until the orange segments are softened.

Switch off the gas.

Sprinkle 1/2 tsp of Bhaja Masala or Garam Masala.

Add some chopped Coriander.

Add couple of green chilies.

Cover and let the dish sit for about 5 minutes. This helps the flavors to come together beautifully

Serve warm with steamed white rice or pulao.

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Chili Garlic Shrimp

Chili Garlic Shrimp

Shrimp tossed with lots of garlic, a hot chilli-garlic and soy sauce is the easiest dish to make. I added some of the Korean Gochujang sauce to the shrimp and it added a burst of flavors

Long back in elementary school, we had to routinely write essays in class, and I often wrote  one with an opening sentence like  "Man is a social animal". I don't think I understood what it meant. The heft of that sentence deluded my 10-11 year old mind. I had found it in some book and it seemed an important enough sentence to get the teacher's attention, and so  many of my school essays be it personal narratives like "My Best Friend" or autobiographical like " Life of a Bovine Creature", began with an opening of "Man is a social animal."

I understand that sentence now in my own way. Human beings seek company, even when it is not needed. Just for the heck of it.
Take me for instance. I was leading  a perfectly peaceful life during the quarantine period. I never felt the need to go out to party or meet people or have dinner together. Whenever I needed to talk, I did enough of that over Phone, texts, Whatsapp, Zoom, Facebook and what not. There was nothing more that I really needed to say to anyone face to face. But once the quarantine orders were lifted what happens ? We started planning on meeting people.

As Covid cases are decreasing in our state and seems to be under control, we have become more braver with meeting people. The fact that it is summer and we can mingle outside in the backyard has helped too. No knowing what the future holds though, who wins, the virus or humans need to socialize.

As Sandip Roy says in this article where he draws a metaphor between the pandemic and the Bengali's favorite "paashbaalish",  will the Bengalis side pillow outlast the pandemic, or will the virus be a steady factor in the life of humans as they go about socializing at less than 6 ft distance.

Now back to food, I have to sheepishly admit that I had no idea what Korean #Gochujang sauce was in the pre-Covid era.🙈
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I heard a lot more about it during the lockdown as folks were creating dishes at home, that reminded them of their favorite restaurant joints. Or maybe they were always creating those but I had not paid attention.

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Anyway I got a bottle of the Gochujang sauce last week at the grocery store. Since then I have been hooked and finished a bottle of it almost. I made this delicious Chili Garlic Shrimp using some of this sauce and our favorite Sichuan hot sauce. It was super easy and quick to make. Everyone agreed that it was delicious. It is the kind of dish that will help you ease into the "new normal" after blissful months pf "lyaad normal".

I have used Sichuan hot sauce and Gochujang sauce here. However if you don't have them, don't fret. You can use the Indian Chinese Red Chilli Sauce instead. You can also play around with the sauces to get the right note that hits your taste buds. Enjoy!

Chili Garlic Shrimp

Ingredients

Shrimp/Prawns -- about 30 raw shrimp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Paprika - 1/2 tsp
AP Flour - 1 Tbsp
Cornstarch -- 1 Tbsp

Onion - 1 small chopped in thin slices
Garlic - 5-6 cloves minced
Ginger - 1 Tbsp grated
Vegetable Oil/Peanut Oil/Sesame Oil - 4-5 Tbsp

Scallion/Green onion - to garnish

Make the Sauce

Sichuan Hot sauce Or Chilli-Garlic Sauce - 4-5 Tbsp (If you don't have this, use the Indian Chinese Red Chilli Sauce)
Gochujang Sauce - 4 Tbsp (If you don't have this, use a mix of Maggi Hot and sweet + Green chilli sauce + little Vinegar)
Soy Sauce - 1 Tbsp
In a bowl add all of the above and make the sauce. Taste and adjust as per your taste

Start Cooking

Clean the shrimp. If you are using frozen shrimp then defrost by running in water at room temperature. Don't ever use hot water or defrost in microwave. Another option is to put shrimp in a ziploc bag and dunk it in a bowl of water at room temp.

Dry the shrimp. Sprinkle salt and paprika and mix. Dust with flour and cornstarch and coat the shrimp

Heat Oil in a skillet. We will just shallow fry the shrimp so maybe 3-4 Tbsp Oil.

Once the oil is hot, add the shrimp, in a single layer and saute until they turn reddish and cooked. Flip and cook the other side. Shrimp cooks fast, specially the frozen ones.
Remove the shrimp on a plate and keep aside.

If there is oil remaining in the pan, use that. Or else add a little oil.

Once the oil is hot, add the onions and garlic. Saute for 3-4 minutes.
When you get the aroma of garlic, add the grated ginger. Saute for a couple of minutes until onion is soft

Next goes in the sauce. Stir in everything in the pan together and cook the sauce for a minute or so. Sprinkle little water if necessary.

Now reduce heat and add the shrimp to the pan. Tossing it so that the shrimp is well coated with the sauce.

Switch off gas. Garnish with green onion and serve as main dish or even as appetizers.



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Pomfret Vindaloo | Pomfret Curry

I rarely buy bone-in fish pieces as the kids don't like them. But I do miss them. Recently one of my neighbors got some pomfret for me from the fish store and I was overjoyed

I wasn't sure what to make with them as the fish was already cut in steak pieces. I like to do a whole baked pomfret but this time I was swaying between a curry and bake. Then I asked the neighbor who got me the fish what she was planning to make. She is a Mangalorean and said she will just fry them with a red masala paste, which basically has red chilli powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder,  little garam masala and some vinegar.

That set the ball rolling.

Recently the husband-man had made a pork vindaloo which was fiery and delicious and I decided to use the same spice base. Following the same masala and recipe I made a pomfret curry which I will call a pomfret vindaloo. It was spicy and good. Even the fried pieces of pomfret with this masala paste was delicious.

Pomfret Vindaloo | Pomfret Curry

Pomfret Fish -- cut in steak size pieces. I had 6 pieces

For the Masala paste

Dried Kashmiri chile peppers -- 8
Cinnamon stick - 1"
Cumin seeds -- 1 tsp
Cloves - 4 whole
Whole black peppercorns - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder
White vinegar - 2 Tbsp
salt to taste

For Gravy


Onion - 1 whole chopped
Garlic -- 6 cloves minced, or more to taste
Fresh ginger root - 1"

Green Chilli peppers - 4 cut into strips
Vegetable oil -- 2 Tbsp
White Vinegar - about 1 Tbsp
Salt - to taste

Prep the masala

Make a dry powder with all spices under Masala Paste. Make a thick paste with the white vinegar and little water.

Marinate and Fry the fish

Now smear the fish pieces with this masala paste and keep aside for 30 mins.

Heat enough oil for shallow frying the fish.
Shallow fry the fish, approx. 3 mins on each side.

Note: I realized later that you can make this curry without frying the fish and adding the marinated fish to the curry and cooking it there too. You decide your choice.

Make the Gravy

Now we don't need this much oil for cooking the gravy. So we will remove most of it keeping only 1-2 Tbsp for cooking.

To the hot oil add the garlic and 2 green chilies. When you get the flavor of garlic then add the onion and ginger. Saute until onion is browned. Add the fish pieces and any remaining masala paste from marinade. Add a little water for gravy and bring gravy to simmer. Reduce heat and cook. Add salt to season.

Now stir in the remaining 2 Green Chilli and 1 Tbsp of vinegar. Cook uncovered until the gravy has thickened and oil rises to the surface. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with rice.



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Chingri Bhorta or Chingri Mola -- spicy prawn pate

Chingri Mola | Chingri Bhorta

Chingri Bhorta or Chingri Mola is a spicy prawn paste, made with tiny, small shrimps cooked in mustard oil and then mashed with green chillies and raw onion. This recipe is my adapted version of the original.

This Chingri Mola or Chingri Bhorta is a huge favorite with me and my older daughter. It is shrimp so what is not to love honestly.

As simple as this dish is, it was not something that my Mother made. Bhortas or baatas, which means anything that is mashed or made into a paste, was not very popular in our urban home, except for the few vegetables that were steamed and then mashed. So say like, aloo seddho/aloomakha or mashed potatoes, kumro bhaate aka mashed pumpkin.

Most of the baata or bhortas in Bengali cuisine is attributed to the Bengalis from East Bengal or Bangals. And that is why whatever baatas I have had is at my in-law's home, be it Kaanchakolar khosha baaata or Phulkopi or Mulo r paata bata

The Bangals, or the Bengalis who immigrated from Bangladesh during or just before partition, are known for their distinctive cooking strategies. They are also known for their enterprising habit of using every bit of vegetables and fish in a dish and not wasting even the peels. I am not sure why people from this region of Bengal are more prone to making baatas etc while the folks from West Bengal are not.

It could be that the immigrant Bengalis were more careful about not wasting food and making the most of what they had. It could also be because Bangladesh was a river state with frequent flooding, so people tried to make most of the vegetables they got during those periods of rain and flood. In both situations, the idea was to stretch to the limits of what little you had.

This particular Chingri Bhorta or Chingri Mola however is not something that my MIL made either. I first heard of it from a friend who described the "Chingri r Mola" that he had at his friend's house in Midnapore, West Bengal. It was made with tiny, small shrimps in their shells, too tiny to remove the shells or tails. These were cooked in mustard oil and then mashed with fingers. Slivers of chopped raw onion and green chillies were then added to them and mashed in together. The friend reminisced how delicious the Chingri Mola tasted and how his friend's mother who pressed the tiny shrimps with her fingers into a coarse paste had magic in those fingers.

This sounded so exciting that I started cooking this chingri mola at home. However the one major thing that we lacked here was the tiny shrimp. We only had the bigger prawns here. So I  adapted the recipe a little. I use medium sized shrimp and make a coarse paste in the mixie. Of course the flavor of those tiny shrimps caught from the local river is missing but we make do with what we get don't we ?
I have also added a second step where I  saute the shrimp paste in mustard oil with nigella seeds, green chillies and onion to make it drier. I think this definitely boosts the flavor and also makes it a dish which you could serve at parties.

Portuguese-Style Fish Stew -- on hump day

Portuguese-Style Fish 

There was a recent @nytimes article which asked 18 families around the world what they were having for a typical weeknight dinner. Almost all the families in that article were eating a dinner cooked at home!! Other than India and Peru (where there was a cook), in all other countries, the dinner was cooked by members of the family. I really found it very interesting as did Li'l Sis. i love to learn about other cultures and seeing what a family is eating gives me a peek into their world.

https://www.nytimes.com/…/family-meals-around-the-world.html

Yesterday on my FB page I asked a similar question -- Are you cooking dinner tonight?

82% of readers said, they were cooking dinner at home.
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Though a small sample size, it gives me so much hope.💕

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Inspired by the families around the world, I decided to cook something different last night and settled on a Portuguese style fish stew. I had Tilapia loins that were waiting in the sink, already defrosted. The Fish stew required just the basic ingredients and little effort. Right up alley on a Wednesday.

I followed a couple of recipes, one of which was from Washington post. Interestingly this tomato based stew has a Portugese + New England influence from the Portuguese immigrants. To it I added some of my own Bengali influence with Bhaja Moshla and lots of green chilies and coriander leaves.🤣

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I cooked in a cast iron skillet and finished it in the oven, this reduced my active cooking time to about 20 mins. I loved this part about the dish, that it was so quick.

The dish came out really very good and I am adding it to my favorite weeknight fish curries recipes.

Portuguese-Style Fish Stew

Inspired by Washington Post -- Portugese Style Fish-Stew

What You Need

Tilapia Loins -- 4 Tilapia filet, each about 4oz, from Costco. Cut each into 3 pieces. Pat dry and then dust with salt-pepper.

You can also use fish like Cod or Bassa

Onion -- 1 medium or half of a large one. Chopped
Garlic -- 6 fat cloves minced
Tomato -- 2 large tomatoes chopped OR 1/2 Cup of canned organic no-salt added crushed tomato
Green Chili -- 4 slit and 2 chopped

Cumin powder (I used Bhaja Moshla) -- 1/2 tsp
Thyme -- a pinch of dried Thyme
Rosemary -- a pinch of dried rosemary
Red Chili Powder -- 1/2 tsp
Salt -- to taste

Optional
You can add some vegetables to this dish like I added diced carrots
Andouille sausage -- 2 cooked sausages chopped
White Wine -- a splash

Start Cooking

Preheat Oven to 350 F.

Heat 1-2 Tbsp Olive Oil a cast iron skillet.

Add the garlic and green chilies.

Once the garlic starts sizzling add the onion. Saute until onion is soft. 2-3 minutes.

Next goes in the tomatoes and carrots. Saute and then cover and cook for 10 minutes at medium heat. Tomatoes should not have any more raw smell.

Add the sausages and saute for a minute. You can add a splash of  white wine at this point.

Next add all the dry spices
Bhaja Moshla
Thyme
Rosemary
Red Chili Powder
Salt to taste

Add the fish pieces, moving them around gently so that both sides are coated with the sauce and they are touching the bottom of the pan

Add round sliced lime, some more green chilies if you like it hot.

Now put the skillet in the pre-heated oven. Cook for 15 minutes. At the end of this, fish should be flaky and cooked.

Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve with salad and brown rice.

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Fish in Ajillo Sauce -- Inspired by Vacations

Over the Christmas break in December, we went to Los Cabos, Mexico. A mini reunion of of some of our college friends from million years back. If I think of it, friends = family for us now.

Anyway, only 4 families could join this time. But don't think that was a small number!! The four families made us 16 people in all, and this was more than enough to turn the service folks crazy at the resort we stayed in. If there were more of us, there is a fair chance that we would be banned from the resort in future.

This was the first time we were going to an all-inclusive resort. So far, we had avoided that wonderful thing, thinking it will be boring and give us an insulated view of the country. That is true but when going in a large group with kids of myriad ages, there is nothing better than an "all-inclusive-resort". I will tell you why.

The first thing you have to understand is, when you have been brought up in a developing country, like me, the word "FREE" comes with a lot of magic.
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Not "born to be free" or free-dom or such.
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More like " Buy 1 Get 1 Free". Or better still -- "Free Food". That raises our dopamine level and makes our heart race faster than if #FarhanAkhtar was in town.
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I don't know about yours, but my mom-in-law gets immense pleasure in picking up free sachets of ketchup at any place that has them and my Dad brings home tea-bags and sachets of sugar from every hotel we stay in. There was time, when I had no idea that you could buy toothpicks at the store. We always got them from the restaurant we ate at and stored them as precious possessions.
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The point is we love anything that is "FREE". Many years back, when we were still new to this country and scratching our heads at -- 1% Fat Milk, 2% Fat Milk or Whole Milk, my Baba had excitedly picked up the Fat-Free Milk on basis of the argument that this had "free fat" and why would one refuse milk that has "free fat" added to it!!!
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So in these #allinclusive hotel/resort deals, you pay upfront and then you don't have to glance at the cheque, end of each meal. Which to us meant -- the food is practically FREE!!!
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Yehhhh!! 💃🤸‍♀️🤜🤛
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And if anything is FREE, we make sure that we get lots of it. Much more than we need. Even if we don't need. .
"Take it na, it's free anyway"!!! .
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That is ingrained in our DNA..So we ate like gluttons at every meal. As if we had arrived at the land of plenty from some famine struck place where we were deprived of food and drinks. That the food was delicious and the menu was tantalizing made it worse.

Daab Chingri -- Prawns in Tender Coconut Shell

Daab Chingri | Prawns cooked in tender coconut shell

Daab Chingri, or prawns cooked in tender coconut shell is more of an urban Bengali dish, made very popular by restaurants. The base recipe is very much like shorshe chingri bhaape, where prawns are mixed in a mustard-coconut paste and then steamed. Here the steaming or cooking happens in a tender green coconut shell, with the the tender coconut(daab) and its cream(daab er malai) elevating the flavor of the dish. 

Jump To Recipe

Not all recipes start with a line like "And in my grandmother's kitchen..."

Neither do all recipes have a boat load of nostalgia tied to them.

But one thing is true, every delicious recipe is triggered by the memory of a meal.

I had never seen a Daab Chingri cooked in my grandmother's kitchen. Neither did my Mother ever make it. Daab aka Tender Young Coconut was very popular in India and we loved it as a drink. Bonus was the tender meat of the coconut -- the shaansh. But prawns cooked in the shell of a tender green coconut? It never featured in any of my childhood meals!

Now Shorshe Chingri Bhaape, where prawns were mixed with a mustard-coconut paste and steamed, was a very popular dish in my home. Only it was steamed in a sealed stainless steel container, that was put either in a pot of rice being cooked or in a pressure cooker. Sometimes, and only sometimes, in my Dida's kitchen, shrimp, coconut and mustard paste would be tossed together, put in a coconut shell and tucked into the dying embers of a unoon. But that was not Daab, that was the hard cooconut shell, it was more of a hasty practical dish and not fancy.

I started hearing about Daab Chingri only when finer Bengali food restaurants started sprouting around Kolkata metropolis. Unlike the paise hotels, which served everyday Bengali meals to the masses, these restaurants offered fine dining in a lovely ambiance and a menu that boasted of Bengali delicacies -- some known and some concocted. I have a hunch that "Daab Chingri" was a brilliant idea spawned by one of them. It tasted delicious like Chingri Bhaape and was very unique in its presentation style. No wonder the dish took off swiftly and spread like wild fire.

Soon, every other person started saying "The Bengali traditional Daab Chingri cooked by my grandmother....". Like really? Your grandmother in the 60s, 70s, 80s and even early 90s cooked Daab Chingri in her kitchen? Errr...think twice!

But to be honest, Daab Chingri is more of an urban Bengali dish and not one of those traditional ones with boatmen, Portuguese, Thakurbari and history written all over them.

Daab Chingri at 6 Ballygunge Place

So anyway, having heard so much about this dish, I wanted to desperately try it. Last time during my India trip, my parents took me to 6 Ballygunge Place. Beautiful decor, awesome table settings, very unique menu -- I was blown over! And they had Daab Chingri on the menu. I had to order it of course. It was a beautiful dish no doubt but I had a feeling that the prawns were cooked prior and then the dish finished off in the Daab. No harm done of course. Maybe this is how one makes Daab Chingri, I concluded.

Then last week, my very talented friend Moumita made Daab Chingri at home and shared with me. It was delicious. The Daab that we get here is not the green coconut served in Indian restaurants, but a slightly more mature version, stripped of the green exterior.

Today, I had a deep desire to cook Daab Chingri at home. Moumita was away from her phone. I started browsing recipes on the internet and each involved garlic, cream, paanchphoron and what not 😡😭. That's not how  I envisioned Daab Chingri. I knew my Daab Chingri would be the mustard-coconut one and not the garlic-cream one.

I then, texted another friend Baishali and she promptly shared two recipes with me. Both her recipes were exactly how I wanted them to be and here's what sealed the deal. Her recipes were very, very easy.

In fact one of them was done totally in the Microwave. As I was experimenting, I tried both the Oven and Microwave method. With lots of green Chili, the sharp mustard paste mellowed by the mildly sweet Coconut, golden Mustard Oil, and succulent prawns -- this was a beautiful dish. Triggered by the memory of a meal and aided by friends, it was dish I would always treasure.💓

To be honest, it is very much like the Shorshe Chingri Bhaape who has gone to a glamorous party. The Tender Coconut Shell definitely adds some panache to the presentation and lends a layer of coconut flavor to the dish.

Easy Garlicky Chingri -- for Dugga Pujo

Durga Pujo is not a time to cook your own food. I mean ideally Ma Durga does not cook on these five days. Neither does Lokkhi, Saraswati, Ganesh or that Karthik? Maybe Baba Shib does, but then again I am not sure.So why should you , tell me?

And then if you do cook, who is going to eat it? I mean after eating bhoger khichuri at the pujo pandal, tons of phuchka just outside the pandal, egg roll on the left of the pandal, mutton biriyani only a few steps away from the pandal, fish kobiraji ordered by phone from the pandal, how will you eat the food cooked at home?
Thus it has been logically proven that there is ABSOLUTELY NO-NEED to cook during the Pujo days. QED!

But for us mere mortals, living away from such overdose of pandals, life is difficult.

Durga too understands our problem and mostly visits us only during weekends. During the week she is "chakki pishing and cooking dinner". Our relatives back home smirk at our plight and thank their stars that they did not go and get a visa stamped. They rustle their heavy silks, bite on their kashundi smeared fish kobiraji, pat their heavily powdered nose and lament, "Aha, ki koshto, Ashtami teo ranna korte hochche re?"

We look away from their kashundi-fied selfie, take deep breaths, think how claustrophobic the crowd in the pandals would make us feel and how all that phuchka can end in nothing good but gelusil and choan dhekur. "Jak baba, eikahnei bhalo achi", we reassure ourselves and contemplate on ways to make a mid-week Saptami dinner more interesting.

And then when the fall air carries with it a fragrance of wood smoke, we carelessly let our minds wander away to the pujo pandals of our childhood where amidst the heavy fragrant smoke of Dhuno, Ma Durga's face came alive with gorjon oil and after hours of fasting for anjali, steaming hot Khichuri in shaal pata doled out at the back of the mandap tasted no less than amrito.

Salmon Posto -- Salmon in Poppy Seed paste

Salmon was not a fish I loved when I first set foot on the shores of this country. I liked neither the taste nor the smell. The very thought of ordering a salmon sent me into bottomless despair. "What is this country where the fish does not taste like Ilish or Rui", I would often cry, my patriotic heart wailing for fish from my motherland. It is always about the food and the fish, isn't it?

I was convinced that my husband's Bong colleague who had gone about the office inviting folks in what sounded like "Plish come to my house, I make pish for you" was actually referring to salmon.

But then the only salmon dishes that we had were in the restaurants, which then were very bland for my taste buds. I was also not fond of the skin-on-salmon and had no idea that I could request the fishmonger to take the skin off.

But we live and learn. We adapt. We love new things and then cannot live without them

Learning from friends, improvising and experimenting, searching the web. we have now found many delicious ways to eat Salmon. It is one of the few fish which adapts itself well to Bengali style dishes like "Shorshe diye Salmon", "Doi Salmon", "Salmon er paaturi" or even a Salmon kalia. Our Salmon experience improved for the better when a friend suggested to bake salmon at a lower heat than other fish. It keeps the fish juicy, he said. And by God, it did. It was so much better and moist when baked at 275F.

Salmon is one of our favorite fish these days and we have it often

A couple of days back I made a Salmon Posto. Rui Posto is something that my Mother makes. I love anything with Posto and so to give salmon a makeover, I made Salmon Posto or salmon in Poppy Seed Curry. You can use any other fish like Rui, Kaatla, Bhetki, Swai or Tilapia in this recipe too. The traditional way is to fry the fish before adding to the posto gravy but of course I baked my salmon.

Also do remember, anything with Posto tastes best with white rice, so though the photo has red rice on the plate, if you have white rice stick to it.