Bhetki Paturi - Bengali Fish in Banana Leaves

Bhetki Paturi is a very common and well known Bengali preparation that you would find on restaurant menus and at homes too. Though paturi is not restricted to bhetki, or even to fish for that matter, this mustard laden parcel of boneless fish is a joy! And it's so easy to make -you don't need any special ingredients or equipment. 

A little planning goes a long way in making top notch paturi. And by planning I only mean a long marination time. Otherwise it's just a matter of slapping the parcels together and cooking them. 

Here's how I made Bhetki Paturi.

4 boneless Bhetki fillets 

4 pieces of banana leaf enough to wrap the individual fillets

3 tbsp posto or white poppy seeds

4-5 green chillies

3 tbsp mustard powder

6 tbsp freshly grated coconut

salt

turmeric (optional)

2 tsp lime juice

1/5 cup mustard oil

Soak the poppy seeds for around 30 minutes and then grind to a smooth paste with a couple (or more) green chillies. 

Soak the mustard powder for around 15 to 20 minutes in a little water to make a paste. 

In a clean bowl or tiffin box marinate the fish fillets with salt and lime juice for an hour or so.

In a separate bowl mix the mustard and poppy seed/posto pastes and add a little bit of salt and the grated coconut. Pour in a couple of tablespoons of mustard oil and around half a teaspoon of turmeric if you are using it. I didn't. 

Use approximately half of this mix and coat the fillets nicely. Close the box or cover the bowl and marinate the coated fish fillets for 6 to 8 hours or overnight. Reserve the remaining marinade in a separate box in the fridge for use later in the recipe. 

Remove both boxes from the fridge an hour or so before you're going to cook the fish and let them come to room temperature.

In the mean while prep the banana leaves. Wash and dry them and cut to a size that allows you to make neat parcels, each for a single fillet. Coat the inner side of the leaf (this will be darker) with a little mustard oil - take just a few drops on the tips of your fingers and smear to coat most of the middle of the leaf. Hold each leaf over a low flame and move it around quickly to 'roast' it very lightly. This softens the leaf and the central stem and makes it easier to bend and fold while making the parcels. 

To assemble the paturi parcels place a leaf on your work surface dark side up. Put a bit of the reserved marinade onto the leaf and spread it a little to cover as much as the fillet will sit on. Now place one marinated fillet and top with another small dollop of marinade. Add a drizzle of mustard oil and carefully close the parcel. You can use toothpicks or string to tie the parcels together. I didn't need to. Make up parcels using up all the fillets in the same fashion. 

In a flat pan large enough to place all four parcels heat some mustard oil - a tablespoon will be enough. Place the four parcels in a single flat layer, reduce the heat to the lowest and then cover the pan. Use two pans if your pan is too small or do them in batches. Let it cook for around 5 - 8 minutes depending on the thickness of the bhetki fillets and then flip the parcels and cook for another few minutes. Keep an eye on things and don't let the banana leaves char too much or the fish inside will taste charred instead of lightly smokey. 

Serve the bhetki paturis with plain hot rice. 

Among the general reading and YouTube videos I also referred to Debjani's recipe for Bhetki Paturi to understand how paturi is made. 

Sorse Katla- Catla Fish in Mustard Sauce

The machh'er jhols and jhals of Bengali cuisine are a veritable wonderland with some elaborate and some ridiculously simple preparations. All with delicious results! From frugal recipes that require barely three to four ingredients apart from the fish itself to more elaborate ones involving an array of vegetables and spices, the sheer variety of fish preparations in a Bengali kitchen is mind boggling. And it is this variety that keeps me seeking and learning more and more.

But not all the recipes are new or alien to me. Many are what Moni cooked. Like this sorse machh, mostly made with the 'peti' or belly pieces of a fatty Katla or otherwise Rui which were always in stock in Moni's freezer, thanks to the weekly shopping at Khar market.

I'd got a lovely Katla for a Bengali cooking workshop I did recently and I had some of it in my freezer. Like Moni, I had separated the peti or belly pieces from the gada or back pieces, put into bags and frozen them. And like her I decided to do this easy sorse katla with the peti pieces. You can use the gada pieces too but I wanted to cook like she used to so it was just the peti pieces for me.

Sorse Katla

6-8 peti pieces of Katla (you can also use Rui or Rohu)
a few fresh green chillies
1 tbsp black mustard seeds
1 tbsp yellow mustard seeds
1 tsp kalaunji or nigella seeds
turmeric
salt
mustard oil
fresh coriander

Wash the fish pieces and drain. Smear the fish pieces with salt and turmeric and keep aside for a few minutes.

Soak the mustard seeds in warm water for around 30 minutes. Drain and grind to a paste with a couple of green chillies if you like. Strain the paste to remove the harder husk of the black mustard seeds for a smoother paste. Moni often didn't bother and thus her gravy would be speckled with black. Soaking the seeds is essential as it removes the bitterness. If you are using powdered mustard you have to soak that too before using. This is essential as otherwise you will end up with a bitter inedible gravy/sauce and the dish will be ruined.

Heat mustard oil in a wok/karai and fry the fish lightly. Remove and keep aside.

Add a little more oil to the karai if required, heat it well and chuck in a teaspoon of kalaunji or kalo jeere as we call it.  Let it sizzle for 30 seconds and then chuck in a few fresh green chillies. I used bullet chillies that I had brought from Kolkata. You can use whatever green chilli you prefer.

Pour in the mustard paste and stir well. Add a little salt and turmeric, cook for a minute. Add half a cup of water, stir to mix. Then add the fried fish pieces gently into the mustard gravy. Once it boils reduce the heat, cover the karai and simmer for five minutes or so. Switch off the heat and drizzle some raw mustard oil into the karai. Cover and let it sit for a few minutes.

Garnish with some fresh coriander and serve with plain hot rice.

You can make this recipe using Ilish, Katla, Rui, Aarh, etc. but my favourite is with a good fatty Katla! This recipe, as you have seen, is simple and very frugal. That is why the ingredients are important. Use good quality mustard oil only. Make sure your green chillies are fresh and flavourful. These are the details that will make the dish shine.

Aar Machher Jhol - Another Bengali Fish Curry

As a child I hadn't eaten many varieties of fish beyond Rui and Katla, Chingri (prawns), and the occasional Ilish, Pabda, and Tyangra. Fresh water fish was available in Mumbai but the variety was quite limited. Thus my education about the immense variety of fish that is cooked in Bengali households was very severely lacking. It didn't help that not much other than Rui and Katla was cooked in my Didin's (mom's mom) kitchen so my exposure to fish was limited even in Kolkata, and since I was not an adventurous kid as far as food was concerned, I would refuse to eat any unfamiliar fish at other relatives' houses too.

My interest in food started when I was in the hostel in Pune while studying archaeology. I often cooked simple meals on a hot plate with basic vessels and a frugal pantry. Then I met the hubby and my exploration of food began in earnest. Eventually we married and have finally ended up living in Kharghar, a remote suburb in Navi Mumbai.

The best thing about life in Kharghar is my fish monger. Operating from a shop about 15 minutes away from my house, this fellow has a huge variety of fresh water and sea water fish available daily. All I do is call up to find out what's available on the day and place my order. My fish comes home to me, cleaned and cut as I like, neatly packed. It is from here that I have discovered new varieties of fish that I had never even heard of, let alone eaten. And one of these, Aar maach, has become a favourite now. It's a large fatty fish, no scales, and has very few bones.

Since there was no point in calling up my mum and asking her for a recipe I turned to good old Google. After browsing a little I realised that the best way to cook this beautiful fish is in the traditional jhol style, with onions and tomatoes, ginger and garlic, and green chillies for zest. It's a very delicate fish that tends to break quite easily, so handle it with care while cooking.

Aar Machh'er Jhol

5 or 6 pieces of Aar (around 500gms)
1 medium onion, finely sliced
1 medium tomato, chopped fine or pureed
1 tbsp fresh ginger-garlic paste
2 fresh green chillies
2 small Indian bay leaves
sugar
salt
turmeric
red chilli powder
mustard oil
water

Wash the fish gently and drain all water. Sprinkle with salt and turmeric and set aside for 10 minutes. In the mean time you can slice the onion, chop the tomato, and pound the ginger and garlic into a paste.
Heat mustard oil in a thick bottomed kadai. Once properly hot fry the fish, one or two pieces at a time. Flip the pieces carefully to cook both sides. Remove from the oil when you see the first hints on browning on the fish pieces. Set aside.

In the same oil throw in the green chillies and the Indian bay leaves. Add in the sliced onions and a pinch of sugar. Stir well and fry till the onions start to brown. Now add the ginger-garlic paste and fry for a minute. Keep the heat at medium throughout so things cook without burning. Add the tomato and cook further. Put in some turmeric, a teaspoon or so of chilli powder, and salt as required. Stir nicely to mix everything and let the spices cook properly.

Once the oil starts to separate from the mix pour in a generous cupful of water and bring it all to a boil. Slide in the fried pieces of fish and let the curry cook for another five minutes. Aar cooks quite fast so don't leave it to boil for too long.

Remove to a flat bottomed bowl and serve it with plain hot rice. Happiness will happen with the first mouthful :)

Moqueca - A Brazilian Fish Stew with Coconut Milk and Peppers

The challenge for May at Chefs Across Boundaries is Brazilian food and it had me quite excited. I have never cooked anything Brazilian and I doubt I've ever eaten any Brazilian dish (at least nothing comes to mind as I write this). I don't have any books on Brazilian cuisine and so I turned to the Internet.

After Googling around and not finding anything that I liked or felt was suitable I turned to Pinterest. And that's where I found this lovely fish stew - Moqueca. A light coconut gravy, no spices - just salt and pepper, fish and a few flavourful ingredients; it seemed perfect for the awfully hot weather we're having these days. I read quite a few recipes and what I liked is how flexible you can be with the sea food. Prawns, assorted white fish, squid- I could use whatever was at hand. Another thing that made me pick this dish is that it had no hard to acquire exotic ingredients and what I didn't have I could easily substitute without going too far from the original.

Moqueca is an old traditional Brazilian preparation that is ideally cooked in a clay vessel. This recipe, which uses coconut milk, is from the Bahia region of Brazil and is also known as Moqueca Baiana. You will need to to cook it in palm oil for complete authenticity.

The stew is really easy to make. Essentially you just layer up the ingredients step by step as you go, pour in the liquids, and then just cover and let it simmer till it's done. With hardly any stirring or supervising the moqueca practically cooks itself! This one is a keeper, trust me.

Here's my tweaked desi version of the beautiful Brazilian fish stew - Moqueca.

6 - 8 boneless pieces Bhetki
8 -10 fresh prawns, cleaned and deveined
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
1 yellow pepper, thinly sliced
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 tomato, chopped
4 -6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 fresh green chillies, roughly chopped. Use jalapeno if you have it
1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder. Use Paprika if you have it, and a some cayenne if you have that too.
1 cup coconut milk. I used Maggi coconut powder
1 cup water or stock
1 lime, zested
1 spring onion, chopped fine
salt
pepper
olive oil

Marinate the fish and prawns in salt and set aside.

In a wok heat the olive oil, a couple of tablespoons at least. Once the oil is hot chuck in the peppers, chillies, onions, tomato, and the garlic and let it all fry for a couple of minutes. Reduce the heat so the garlic doesn't burn. Once the onions have softened and turned translucent add the chillli powder and stir.

Place the fish pieces and the prawns on top. Cook covered for a couple of minutes. Then pour the stock/water and the coconut milk into the wok. Add the lime zest and season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook till the fish and prawns are done.

Remove to a serving bowl. Garnish with chopped fresh spring onion greens and serve on a bed of hot rice with a couple of lemon wedges.

Fish in Coconut and Coriander Curry

I first encountered coconut milk in the little house I shared with Kurush in Pune. That was where I first started exploring food and cooking and thanks to him I discovered and learned about a whole world of cuisines, ingredients, preparations and flavours. Coconut milk was among them and is probably one of my favourite new flavours and ingredients. I used it in every possible dish from beef curries to paneer, vegetables to chicken gravies. I loved it and went a little crazy with it. One of the most memorable concoctions from those days is this light and flavourful fish curry that is loaded with fresh coriander along with the coconut milk.

Fish in Coconut and Coriander Curry

6 to 8 pieces bhetki, I used boneless fillets
turmeric
salt
1 small onion, sliced fine
1 small tomato, diced
20 stalks of fresh coriander
3 -4 fresh green chillies
2 sprigs fresh curry leaves
1 star anise
2 or 3 cloves
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
3 heaped tbsp coconut powder dissolved in a cup of water
water
mustard oil

Wash the fish pieces well and rub with turmeric and salt. Heat oil in a wok and fry the fish lightly for a minute or so. Remove to a plate and keep aside.

In the same wok add a little more oil and fry the whole garam masalas for a minute. Add the green chillies and curry leaves, followed by the finely sliced onions. Add the ginger and garlic pastes and the dry powdered spices along with some turmeric at this stage. Stir continuously and fry for a couple of minutes till the onions turn colour slightly. Add the diced tomatoes.

Wash the fresh coriander stalks and chop up the stems and leaves, reserving a few leaves for sprinkling on top after cooking. Add the chopped coriander to the wok and stir to mix well. Mash up the tomatoes as much as you can. Add salt. Cover the wok and let the masala cook for few minutes so the tomatoes get soft.

Now pour in the coconut milk and bring it all to a boil. Add more water if you feel you won't have enough gravy. Slide in the fish pieces and let it all cook for a couple of minutes. Remove to a flat serving dish and garnish with the reserved coriander leaves. Serve hot with rice.

You can make this curry with any fish you like.

This is a light fish curry that I make often in the hot summer months. The thin coconut milk keeps it light as compared with the heavier curries that use ground coconut, and the coriander leaves and stems impart a lovely freshness to the dish. It's not heavy on the spices and neither does one need any accompaniments with it. Just a mound of hot rice and this flavourful broth-like curry is enough.

Marathon Bloggers

Alu, Phulkopi Diye Machhe'r Jhol - Bengali Fish Stew with Potatoes and Cauliflower

Once in a way the Hubby asks me to cook a Bengali dish. This morning as we were in our local fish shop he bought a baby Bhetki and asked for a light and comforting alu, phulkopi'r jhol with a mountain of hot rice to be made for lunch. I used to call this 'jeere'r jhol' and one version or another of this simple preparation was made in my grandmother's kitchen and in those of all her sisters.

The fish was usually rui, a kind of river carp, and the vegetables in the stew would vary - there could be brinjals, pointed gourd or potol, plantain, and of course, cauliflower. The potato was omnipresent in all the versions. In winter when good cauliflower was available, the alu phulkopi diye jhol would appear quite frequently on the table.

As with most Bengali dishes, I had to do a little reading just to reassure myself of the basic recipe. Some recipes are so simple, and have such few ingredients they make you feel sure you've left something out! This was exactly the case today and though I was quite sure how this lovely, light jhol is made, I just had  to check anyway.

Alu, Phulkopi Diye Machhe'r Jhol

I don't claim this to be an authentic or traditional Bengali recipe. This is my version based mostly on my memories of eating it at my Didin's (maternal grandmom) house, and occasionally at our own house in Mumbai.

1/2 kilo bhekti (or any other suitable fish), sliced
1 small cauliflower, broken into florets
2 medium potatoes, cut into long wedges
2 fresh green chillies
1/2 inch piece ginger
1/2 tsp nigella seeds or kalonji
1/4 tsp randhuni (optional)
1 tsp cumin or jeera powder
mustard oil
salt
turmeric

Wash the fish slices, drain and then marinate with salt and turmeric. Leave it aside while you prep the vegetables.

Heat some mustard oil in a largeish wok and fry the fish lightly till the fish just turns opaque. I prefer this lightly fried version over the darker more firmly fried version. You can fry the fish more if you prefer. Remove the fried fish to a plate or vessel and then lightly fry the cauliflower and the potatoes in the same oil, one after the other. You might need to add a little oil along the way. Remove the fried vegetables too.

Now add some oil and wait till it is heated up really well. Chuck in the green chillies, nigella, and randhuni seeds. Stir for a minute and return the fried vegetables to the wok. Add the jeera powder and stir well to mix. Grate in the ginger. Add a little turmeric powder and salt too. Add a generous glass full of water, enough to submerge the vegetables. Bring to a boil and then cover and cook on simmer till the vegetables are nearly cooked.

Slide in the fried fish pieces and let the whole thing simmer for another 3 or 4 minutes. Adjust salt if necessary and remove the jhol carefully into a wide mouthed large serving bowl. Serve hot with rice.

As you can see it's a simple, frugal recipe with no elaborate procedures or fancy ingredients. Yet, it is a delicious and flavourful dish that's made in households across Bengal. I'm happy to say the hubby enjoyed it thoroughly. As for me, I was back in our flat in Bandra, sitting at the dining table squabbling with my brother, being scolded by my parents - back to being a 10 year old demanding the 'lyaja' or the tail piece :)

Marathon Bloggers

Of Khadkhadle, Bhujne, Bombil and Kolambi - The Pathare Prabhu Table

A few weeks ago Manisha, who writes The Chronicles of the Sassy Fork invited K and me to lunch. She said it would be at a Pathare Prabhu residence and the meal was going to be cooked by Soumitra Velkar and his family. A chance to go feast at a Pathare Prabhu table?! I was going whether or not K could make it! The date was fixed and I had to wait. We'd had a grand dinner at Bimba Nayak's house some months earlier so I had a pretty good idea what I could look forward to.

Finally it was time to drive across the city to the Velkars' residence and luckily K had the day off too. I think I drooled all the way there...

The PPs (as they are called) are among the oldest settlers of Mumbai and have contributed greatly to making Mumbai the city it is, much like the Parsis. They laid the foundations on which this city grew into the Megapolis it is today. Common landmarks like the Bhau cha Dhakka and the Mahalakshmi Temple were built by them.

I had heard catering stories from the hubby about PP clients and how, for one party held at Shree Pant Bhavan at Chowpatty (a huge building owned and occupied by the community) they set up the kitchen in the lift of the building! Now this building housed a car showroom in the old days and the lift was massive enough to carry the cars up to the terrace where they could be parked - probably the only building in Mumbai in those days with a lift of that size! As it turned out, the son of that client was present at lunch with us today :)

Getting back to the lunch - we started with a rose sharbat with sabja seeds, and then a string of starters, one more delicious than the next. There was Bhanole, Kolambi Pie, Bombil Bhajji, and absolutely delectable Khimyachya Shingdya.

Rose and sabja sharbat.

Bhanole is an interesting dish that comprises cabbage and prawns, and is baked. Baking is a commonly used cooking technique in PP cuisine and this is a superb example of how well they have adopted and adapted a western technique to suit their palate and cuisine.

Kolambi Pie - another example of how baking is a favoured cooking technique. This is a sort of shepherd's pie but with prawns and a nice robustly spiced version.

Bombil Bhajji or bhajiyas - I love bombil or bombay ducks and my favourite way to have them is in the classic rawa or besan coated fry. This bhajji was a revelation! I could have curled up with a hot mug of coffee, a good book and a steady stream of these babies hot off the kadai and been very content indeed!

Khimyachya Shingdya - mince stuffed pastry crescents. Many communities in western India make crescent shaped stuffed pastry snacks and they're usually filled with either a sweet coconut filling or a savoury green pea or tender tuvar or pigeon pea fillings. Called karanji, ghungroo, ghugra, newri, these are quite ubiquitous in the region. When I discovered that the ones on the table today were stuffed with minced mutton my day was made :)

Eventually we moved on to the main courses. Phew! I was already stuffed but I wan't going to miss out on anything today.

We started with Mutton Gode served with pav, and a fantastic koshimbir (finely cut salad) of red onions, white radish, green chillies, fresh coriander and lime juice topped with crisply fried dried bombay ducks. I haven't eaten much dried fish and this koshimbir was a superb place to start.

The Mutton Gode - I love mutton and if it has been cooked with big chunks of potatoes my Bengali heart simply sings. This mutton preparation reminded me a lot of the sublime flavours of the Sunday mutton cooked in numerous Bengali households where the gravy is light and subtly flavoured. Though more robust than a Bengali mangshor jhol, I could easily have made a meal of the Mutton Gode with a mound of rice and a raw onion on the side. Like most of the coastal Maharashtrian communities the PPs also have their signature spice blends and the Mutton Gode had Parbhi Sambhaar masala in it. This masala has spices like naag kesar and hing in it. It also contains ground wheat and chana daal which work as thickening agents.

A rather unusual dish on the menu was the Ananas Sambhare. Made with coconut milk, cashew nuts and pineapple, this sambhar is quite unique with the sweetness of the fruit paired with the spice of their sambhar masala. I am not at all into fruits but I did taste it before gamely passing it on to the hubby who quite liked it.

Bombil Methkutache, Bombay ducks in a light but spicy gravy, this preparation has Parbhi Methkut, another spice blend that's typical to the PPs.

Only a true fish loving community would come up with a recipe that uses the bones of a fish as the star ingredient and just like the Bengalis use the head and the bones of some fish to make specific delicacies, the PPs have the incredibly delicious Katyache Bhujne. This dish had the spinal bone of the huge Ghol stewed in onions, chillies, coriander and garlic. The flavours of this preparation were very close to a version of the Bengali machher jhol that my mother and grand mother used to make. The only additional ingredient in their version was chopped tomato. I took two helpings of the bhujne and relished it with rice.

The PPs are very fond of prawns, and you will have noticed there were many prawn preparations on the menu today. This is the Kolambi Khadkhadle and it was finger licking good. By the time I got to it I was stuffed beyond belief, but I wasn't going to miss it.. so I soldiered on after a five minute break ;) Once again there was a good dose of garlic with red chilli, turmeric, some hing and the Parbhi Sambhaar masala creating a well spiced and delicious dish.

Cheek or kharvas - This is a dessert that is a favourite among Maharashtrians and is one of the hubby's top favourites too. Made from the 'first' milk of the cow, or the colustrum, and lightly flavoured with cardamom and nutmeg. Paired with it was a rose flavoured mawa (reduced milk). The hubby had two, or was it three helpings of dessert before I stood at his side and ensured he didn't have any more!

That we were stuffed goes without saying. That we were sated is an understatement. That I am in love with PP food is a fundamental truth. Quite in contrast to the spice and coconut heavy cuisines of coastal Maharashtra, the Pathare Prabhus have a lighter hand in the kitchen and I think that is what allows them to eat such a lavish spread without batting an eyelid!

There is a growing awareness of local cuisines in Mumbai and Soumitra Velkar along with his wife and mother, is doing a splendid job of showcasing his community's food to an eager audience. I cannot thank the Sassy Manisha enough for this fabulous treat :)

A Couple of Markets and a 50mm Lens

I love markets. I simply love the seas of produce, the little shops, the big shops, the same old things and the sudden treasures, the shop keepers, the hustle and bustle, the energy of shoppers and sellers, the mess, the crowds, the cats, the crows... everything! The one thing I miss in Kharghar is a good market. Sure, we get most things in the various supermarkets and now, online, but I yearn for a market to wander around in.

As a kid I used to go to the market practically every weekend with my parents. Khar market was where we went and I still have many memories of our weekly visits, especially the singara and jilipi from Brijwasi :)

In Pune Shivaji Market and Tulshi Baag were my favourite haunts. After getting married and moving to VT in Mumbai there was Bora Bajaar just a few minutes from our house and there was the mother lode - Crawford Market, just a short cab ride away. I have spent many happy hours wandering through these markets, discovering lanes selling everything from umbrellas to buttons, snacks to utensils, and brooms to brinjals. Those were wonderful days indeed.

Kolkata still has many big markets in spite of the Spencers and Big Bazaars that have mushroomed all over. A visit to Gariahat market has now become a must do, and this time I also had a wander around Lake Market. The markets are a great place for any photography enthusiast and I took my camera along. I'm still getting used to the 50mm lens and what better way to practice than take tons of pictures in the markets?!

So here are some photos from my sojourns into Gariahat and Lake markets.    

A giant Rohu in Gariahat Market

The same rohu cut and set up for sale. This fish was massive and the cheeky fishmonger was shouting "horin'er mangsho! horin'er mangsho!" (venison! venison!)

More regular sized rohu in the market

The fish stalls are all decorated with buntings and have shrines with fresh flowers, adding so much colour to the general ambience.

At present it's full on Hilsa season and the markets are full of this prized fish.

Fresh water prawns.. each is about 6 to 8 inches long

The massive 'ansh-bonti' that is used to cut up the bigger fish.

Hilsa and some really large prawns at the Lake Market

More prawns and Hilsa at Lake Market

There is a shop in Lake market that sells on bori. He had boris made of different daals and he also had posto bori, which I didn't even know existed! Of course I bought some :)

Gariahat market has many shops selling Puja related paraphernalia. You also get the required things for weddings and other rituals and ceremonies.

Alta, Sindur, Dhoop and Jabakusum tel

Chaand malas - used to decorate the shrine in the house.

Wooden plates known as barkosh, straw mats, chaki for rolling rotis and puris, and a bucket of belans, spoons, etc.

Small stone glasses, mini plates, and bowls, mainly used in the puja rituals. A food blogger's heaven for props!

Marathon Bloggers Project 52

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