Monday, August 4, 2014

Sorse Ilish - My first Microwave Recipe



I have always had a mental block against cooking in the Microwave - all that zapping, opening, stirring, and zapping, resting, and stirring somehow made it sound crazy and so I never ever tried cooking any thing in the microwave. Mine is used to thaw frozen things, to warm food, to melt chocolate, and on occasion, to park things when I run out of counter space.

My cousin in Kolkata was known for a mustard ilish that he cooked in the microwave so since I'm here I demanded that he make it. I wanted to know if it really was as simple as some people said it was. Well, it was. I am definitely not a convert to microwave cooking and am not going to go into a frenzy of looking for recipes or buying books, but this recipe is certainly a keeper.

Sorse Ilish in the Microwave

6 to 8 pieces of ilish, cleaned and washed
3/4 cup mustard and green chilli paste
2 tablespoons thick curd
salt
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup mustard oil

Mix all the ingredients apart from the fish to make a marinade.    Coat the fish pieces in the marinade. Set it aside till you are ready to serve the meal. Arrange the marinated fish pieces in a microwave safe dish and pour the remaining marinade over the pieces. Cover the dish.

Microwave on high for 4 minutes and then check for doneness. Zap another 30 seconds to 1 minute if it needs further cooking. The cooking time will vary according to the size and thickness of the fish pieces so a little trial and error is required.

Serve hot with plain white rice.


We had a particularly large fish that was full of eggs so we lightly fried the fish first.


Be generous with the mustard oil!


Coat the fish well.



Arrange on a plate or microwaveable dish and zap.


And the Sorse Ilish is ready!

You can also add freshly grated coconut to the marinade for an extra level of flavour.

This basic marinade can be used to make most other varieties of light fleshed fish, prawns and even paneer. The zing is in the mustard paste and the mustard oil. No substitutes for those :)

Marathon Bloggers Project 52  
 

5 comments:

tojo said...

´cept for the rarity of the main ingredient,all other spices are abundantly available here in exile and the procedure is so clearly explained,might try some other fatty fish, thanks.

Harshika said...

Made the peyaaj posto today. Next up is this one. Oooh la la!

Simran Khorana said...

I am a great fan of Bengali Cuisine and this one looks so tempting. Rhea, could you please share Mustard and green chili paste recipe with me.

Rhea Mitra Dalal said...

Simran, it's very easy. Soak some yellow mustard in plain water for about 30 minutes. Drain and grind to a paste with a couple of green chillies.You can add a few cloves of garlic to this if you like.

Simran Khorana said...

Thank you so much Rhea !! :)