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Today being a Sunday, my family members were wishing to have something of a non-veg dish for lunch and were wishing for Ilish mach. Though it's not easy to find Ilish mach in Delhi but somehow my husband managed to find from the Chittoronjon park. We Bengalis prepare Ilish mach in quite a few different methos, sometimes it's cooked with curd (doi mach) and sometimes it is cooked with begun (brinjals) and sometimes it is cooked with only potatoes. Today I thought about preparing it with mustard paste, without using any onions or garlic or ginger. Everyone loved the taste.
Ingredients :
Ilish Mach (Hilsa fish) - 6-7 pieces (about 500 gms)
Potatoes - 2-3 medium sized, boiled, peeled and cut into long pieces
Tomato puree - 3 tbsp
Black Mustard Seeds - 2 tbsp (Soak them in lukewarm water)
Kalojeere or Kalonji or Nigella seeds - 2 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Salt as per taste
Green Chillies - (slited along the length) 8-10 nos.
Mustard Oil - 4 tbsp
Method :
After washing clean the fish pieces and wiping them dry, place them in a bowl and add 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder and some salt to it and mix nicely so that the turmeric powder and salt get coated all over the fish pieces. Let them to marinate. Then prepare a semi-smooth paste of the soaked mustard seeds along with 2 green chillies and a pinch of salt and keep it aside. Heat mustard oil in a wok and fry the Ilish mach pieces to a golden brown colour. Take them out when they turn crisp. Now temper the same oil with nigella seeds and the slited green chillies and add tomato puree too. Cook stirring every now and then till the raw smell of the tomatoes goes away. Add the prepared mustard paste, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and some water to the mixture and bring it to boil over medium flame. Now slowly add the fried fish pieces and the boiled potato pieces as well into the mustard gravy and covering the wok with a lid, let them to cook over low flame for about 15-20 minutes so that the flavour of the mustard paste goes into the fish. When the gravy reaches the desired consistency, remove it from the fire. Sorshe bata diye Ilish jhol is ready to be eaten. It goes very well with steamed rice.