Fish n Fish for RCI Bengal

Yes, I have done it. I am late for my own event. I had never hosted an event since I started food blogging. I spend enough time chasing Moms at DMC to host a theme every month and the rest of the time chasing life, so I never thought I would have time to host a Food Blog Event, how much ever I love it.

I would often be awed by everyone who hosts these food blog events by their diligence and time management. I would wonder that if I ever host one, would I be running late in doing the round up or would I be lacking in leaving a comment for everyone who contributes for the event or would I be the last one to contribute for my own event. Well, I needn’t have wondered, I am kind of doing all of them it seems.

Today is the last day and I had to simply had to post my dish by today. I have not been doing my best in the health department as I had said earlier and as a result have been cooking real simple meals. On top of that little S was down with stomach flu over the weekend and throwing up like a fountain, which reduced simple meals to mashed potato and rice. Today, I roped in the hubby and he chopped the veggies while I made two real simple fish dishes.

So fish it is from me who craves fish and fish it is from the hubby who sadly doesn’t crave any

Fishy we are but not as much as the Bong guy who said “Pleesh come to my house, I make very good piish, you shiit and I make piish for you”



I have two fish dishes for RCI-Bengal both of which I love immensely. Somehow I end up cooking stuff that I love most of the time. Call me selfish

One is CatFish Charchari, it is a dry dish with fish, potatoes and brinjal. The original fish of choice for Macher Charchari is Tangra or Mourala but I make do with the cat fish fillet when I don’t get these. This recipe I am going to post tomorrow.

The other one is a Alu-Kopi diye Macher Jhol. This again is a simple light curry best suited for everyday meal and I mean really every day.

My Ma makes awesome fish curry with potatoes and cauliflowers. It is a light curry, a patla jhol as we say in Bengali, to be had with rice and is served for homely meals as opposed to meals served in a wedding or on special occasions. Given a choice I prefer light fish curries to the rich ones and would happily have them at weddings but sadly that is not done. These curries taste good when the fish is fresh and sweet. i.e. fresh water fish is a better choice for these kind of gravies.

So when I got this fish called croaker at the American grocery and it looked very fresh I thought to satiate my craving for alu-kopi’r patla jhol with it. My good friend N, suggested a little different way of tempering and I followed that this time. It was a very satisfying jhol and with steaming hot rice took me a step closer to heaven.


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Alu Kopi diye Macher Jhol/Fish in a light Gravy with Vegetables

What You Need

The fish curry was sufficient for only 2 persons, maybe 3 at the most

Croaker Fish ~ You can use any other variety of fresh water fish. Get the fish cut in steak pieces. The fish I had was a medium sized one and made 5-6 small pieces

The Veggies

Cauliflower ~ 7 – 8 medium sized cauliflower florets, size as in the gravy pic
Potato ~ 2 medium sized chopped in quarters
Green Chillies ~ 4 slit through the middle
Tomatoes ~ 2 small sized canned & peeled tomatoes or a medium sized fresh one finely chopped

For tempering

Hing/Asafoetida ~ a pinch
Jeera/Whole Cumin seeds ~ 1 tsp loosely packed

For masala

Dhania Powder/Corriander Powder ~ 1 tsp
Ginger paste ~ ½ tsp

Salt
Turmeric ~ ½ tsp
Oil

How I Did It

Wash the fish pieces in warm water, pat dry & and mix them with a teaspoon of turmeric powder and salt.

Heat Oil till it is smoking. Fry the fish in oil, till it is a nice golden brown color on both sides. The only draw back of this is most of the oil goes to waste as you discard most of the oil after frying.

Heat Oil again in a Kadhai

Separately fry the potatoes and cauliflower florets with a sprinkling of turmeric till they take on a light golden hue. Keep them aside. They should be just lightly fried

Temper Oil with Asafoetida and Whole Cumin Seeds

Add the chopped tomatoes and fry till they are mushy

Add the ginger paste, the Corriander powder and Green Chillies and fry the masala with a sprinkle of water

Add the potatoes and the cauliflower

Add salt and sauté till the masala coats the veggies

Add about 2 and ½ cups of water and cover and cook till veggies are done. Take care that the cauliflower florets are not over cooked

Add the fried fish pieces and let it cook for 4-5 minutes. The gravy will be light and have a soupy texture

Serve with steaming hot rice and a lemon wedge on the side



I am posting Pacific time if you insist. But for late comers like me, I give you one more day to post your recipes for RCI-Bengal

Shubho Naboborsho

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year

* The Hindu solar calendar based on the Surya Siddhanta commences in mid-April of the Gregorian year. The first day of this calendar is celebrated as the traditional New Year in Assam, Bengal, Kerala, Manipur, Nepal, Orissa, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Tripura.

Goduma Dosa -- quick, easy, wheat dosa

I love Dosa, no not all kinds, but Masala Dosa and paper Masala Dosa and oh yes, Mysore Masala Dosa. Growing up we ate a fair amount of Masala Dosa, not at home, but on our ritual Sunday outings. It might sound strange because it is not something a typical Bong family would do. The hubby insists they ate, Dhakai Parota & Kasha Mangsho, Moghlai and such on their weekend outings. I guess because those days we lived in Bihar where these delicacies were not available, we settled for Masala Dosa on most days we ate out, no one is complaining though because we loved it.

Dosa at home was a rarity though. My Ma couldn’t whip up the perfect thin crispy Dosa like the restaurants, I liked my Dosa to be paper thin and my Ma’s would be thick and I did not like that. So many a times she would make utthapam instead.

However during the summer months, when we would have morning school and eventually long leisurely summer holidays we would have Masala dosas as a treat on weekdays too, courtesy the Dosawala. The Dosawala with his mobile cart, the huge black iron griddle and glistening steel containers of Dosa batter, sambhar, coconut chutney and potato stuffing would do rounds of our neighborhood every Tuesday evening. Come dusk, the far cry of his metallic spatula hitting the iron griddle would reverberate in the neighborhood. I don’t remember if he shouted out his wares like other peddlers but that “tong-tong” sound of the spatula was enough to make us scurry to the gates with a steel tiffin-carrier and boxes for the hot crisp Masala Dosa and chutney.

My Dosa making skills are zero or maybe even sub-zero. I lack the paraphernalia to grind the batter, or the finesse to flip one and anyway it has been always easier to pop into the nearest Dosa place when I am craving for one.

When I saw the Goduma Dosa at Nupur’s, I felt my confidence soar. This is something I can easily do, I told myself and tweaked this recipe to my taste. I added onions and chillies to the batter, substituted part water with yogurt. I also took cue from Sra and added some pickle to some of them while other I had with potato masala stuffing. It was wonderful, nothing like the Crisp thin Masala Dosas but good to eat none the less.

The Goduma Dosa goes to Dosa Mela at Srivalli's

Goduma or Wheat Dosa

What You Need

Whole Wheat Flour ~ ½ cup
Rice Flour ~ ½ cup
Jeera powder ~ 1 tsp
Red Chilli powder ~ depending on your spice level
Red onion ~ ½ of a medium finely chopped
Green Chillies ~ 3-4 finely chopped
Curry leaves ~ 5-6 finely chopped
Yogurt ~ about 1 cup diluted with water
Water ~ almost 2 cup
Salt ~ according to taste

How I Did It

I simply made the batter with all of the above ingredients and let it sit for half an hour.
Then heated the griddle and followed Nupur’s instructions. Mine was not lacy as hers though, maybe I just need more practice or my batter needs to be more thin
Tasted really good with potato masala.

Remember last date for RCI-Bengal is April 15th midnight

Trivia: The eminent food scientist Dr. K.T. Achaya. points out authoritatively that while Dosai and Vadai have a hoary two-thousand-year history in Tamil country, Idli is a foreign import. Huh, really ? Check this