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Friday, August 7, 2015

Pabda Macher Sorshe Jhal( Pabo Catfish in mustard gravy)

       After quite long time, I'm sharing a fish recipe here. This is an authentic Bengali recipe which is simply delicious. "Sorshe(mustard in english) Jhal" means fish cooked with mustard paste in a thick gravy(jhal). Mustard seed and mustard oil both are an integral part of Bengali cuisine and almost all kinds of fish are cooked in mustard paste gravy. Any fish like Rohu, Pabda, Pomfret, Hilsa(Ilish maach) can be prepared following this recipe. This is not so spicy, but mustard paste along with mustard oil for cooking makes this dish just so heavenly delicious. Pabda is also known as Pabo Cat fish in english. And if you can get hold of some fresh Pabda, then think no more, just go ahead with this recipe.
        I used some potato slices in the gravy, but it's totally up to you, you want to add them or not. Generally, we don't add potatoes in fish curry with mustard paste. But nobody is going to kill you, if you do so. Just joking, actually my hubby doesn't like any fish curry without a few slices of potato in it(He is a Potato freak you know). so let's move on to the recipe.......


A note :: Pabda is a very delicate fish to handle and has no scales. So, for this kind of scaleless fish , while marinating the fish pieces with turmeric powder and salt, we add few drops of oil, otherwise, while frying, oil will splutter more and your skin can get burnt. So during the whole process of cooking this fish, you have to be very careful. 

You need ::

Pabda Fish : 2-3 pieces
Potato(if using) : 1, small, cut lengthwise
Black Cumin seed : 1 tsp.
Ginger : 1/2"
Yellow Mustard seed : 2 tsp.
Black Mustard seed : 1/2 tsp.
Turmeric powder : 2 tsp.
Green chilli : 1-2 (use as per your tolerance level)
Tomato : 1(big), chopped
Salt to taste

Mustard Oil : 2 tblsp.(for frying the fish)+1 tblsp.(for cooking)
Fresh coriander leaves for garnishing

How To :
  • Preperation : (a) Clean the fish, marinate them with few pinches of salt and turmeric powder and few drops of oil for about 20-30 minutes. (b) Make a paste of ginger and 1 green chilli. (c) Soak yellow and black mustard seeds for 10-15 mins. in little water, then make a fine paste of mustard seeds with a pinch of salt(salt is added to lessen the bitterness of mustard seed), using very less water. Keep aside.
  • Frying the fish :: Heat 2 tblsp. oil in a pan, when hot, slowly add the fish pieces one by one into the pan, in medium high heat, fry them very carefully from both sides till they are golden brown. When done, remove from heat and keep aside. In the same pan, fry the potato slices for few minutes and then keep aside.
  • Cooking :: Heat 1 tblsp.oil in another pan, when hot add black cumin seed/kalonji to the oil, wait till they sizzle, then lower the heat a little, add ginger-green chilli paste along with turmeric powder, cumin and coriander powder. Add 2 -3 tblsp. of water in the pan and mix well with the spices. Cook the spices well till oil separates. Add chopped tomatoes at this moment. Mix well with the spice paste. when tomatoes become soft, add mustard paste and mix in the spice paste. Cook for few more minutes, then add fried potatoes and 1/2- 1 cup of hot water to the pan. Add salt to taste. [Add 1/2 cup water if you are not adding potato and 1 cup if adding potato to the gravy.]

When potatoes are cooked and you have your desired consistency of gravy left, remove from heat. Finally garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Enjoy with some freshly made hot white rice................

Friday, August 07, 2015 / by / 2 Comments

2 comments:

Thanks for visiting my blog and for your valuable feedback. This means a lot to me...

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