Simplified Sorshe Bata Koi and Alaskan Rockfish - Fish in Mustard Sauce

Sorshe Bata Koi

Alaskan Rock Fish in Mustard Sauce

Both kinds of fish, bone-in and filleted, were prepared in mustard sauce or sorshe bata, the former for my enjoyment and the latter for Hubby who does not like to mess with the bones. The recipe was simplified by combining all the ingredients, except for the mustard sauce, in a bowl and left on the counter top to marinate for 1/2 hour. A cold skillet is placed over medium-high heat, the marinated fish poured into it and brought to a boil. The heat is lowered to medium-low, the fish covered and simmered for 10 minutes before the mustard sauce is added. Everything is stirred together and simmered for 10 minutes more and garnished with green chilies.

Best served with steamed long-grain rice, this is a delightful part of any Bengali meal. The koi maach/climbing perch is not for the inexperienced consumer of fish because great care and skill is required to successfully remove every sharp bone in the fish.

Koi Maacher Jhaal - Climbing Perch in a Hot Sauce

Koi Maacher Jhaal

Maacher Jhaal comes in two varieties. There is Sorshe Batar Jhaal or fish in mustard sauce and there is Maacher Jhaal which simply means it is hot and spicy. This dish is of the second variety. It usually is made with only 5 ingredients: fish, nigella seeds, diced green chilies, turmeric powder and chili powder or Kashmiri mirch. Loving tomatoes as much as I do, a beefsteak tomato went into the mix.

Climbing Perch or Koi Maach, available in the Asian markets, are flash-frozen before being packaged for export from places like Vietnam. Flash-freezing is an accelerated process in which fish are individually frozen solid at extremely low temperatures immediately after being harvested. This allows fish to be caught, processed and frozen solid in hours rather than days. Flash-freezing prevents fish from getting freezer burn so that we, the consumers, are able to enjoy fish at its peak of perfection. Of course there is no comparison to fresh-caught fish from local Indian markets, but we are grateful that the varieties of fish we grew up with, are available to us at all!

This dish generally has a layer of oil (usually mustard oil) floating on the top, but I scaled it down to a mere 4 tablespoons.

Climbing Perch (Koi Maach) in Fennel Seed Sauce

Mouri Bata Diye Koi Maacher Jhol

This dish was inspired by Ishani Ghosh Majumdar's recipe posted on Kitchen Raagas group in Facebook.

Tilapia Fillets in Fennel Seed Sauce

I have also made this same recipe using tilapia fillets.

Catfish Steaks in Fennel Seed Sauce uses the very same ingredients with just a few differences.  The gravy is much thicker in this dish and I've used climbing perch here instead of catfish.

This fish, also known as Koi Maach in Bengali, is purchased live in India and is well-known for its recuperative qualities. In the U.S. and in Michigan in particular, we have no option but to buy frozen climbing perch which is sometimes available in some Oriental and Indian grocery stores. Although the flavour of the live fish is far superior to the frozen variety, it is still a good alternative to using other species of fish, such as catfish or tilapia.

Fennel seed powder is made by toasting fennel seeds in a dry skillet until their aroma is released, taking care not to brown them. Once cooled, the fennel seeds are ground to a fine powder in a coffee grinder that has been reserved specifically for grinding spices.  

After each use, the spice grinder is whirred with baking powder to clean it and remove all aromas.

Ingredients:
1 lb. climbing perch, cleaned and gutted
4 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. fennel seeds
2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 Tbsp. ginger paste
½ tsp. turmeric
1 Tbsp. Kashmiri mirch or chili powder
2 + 1 Tbsp. fennel seeds, roasted and ground to a fine powder
½ tsp. sugar
salt to taste
4 green chilies, slit
chopped cilantro

Directions:
1.  Wash fish well and make two slanted slits on each side of each fish between the head and tail. This allows the sauce to penetrate to the center.

2.  Apply salt & turmeric to fish and marinate for half an hour.

3.  Make a paste with 1 tsp. oil, ginger paste, salt, Kashmiri mirch & 2 Tbsp. fennel powder.
4.  Stir remaining 1 Tbsp. fennel powder and sugar with 2 Tbsp. water and set aside.
5.  In a skillet over medium-high heat, fry fish in oil on both sides and set aside.
6.  In the same oil, fry fennel seeds until they sputter, then add the tomatoes.
7.  Cook tomatoes with 1st batch of fennel seed paste until tomatoes break down.
8.  Add a cup of boiling water in 4 batches, stirring well after each addition.

9.  Adjust salt to taste, add fried fish, cover and cook for 5 minutes. 

10. Turn fish over and cook for another 5 minutes.

11. Add 2nd batch of fennel seed paste and stir gravy gently without disturbing the fish.

12. Garnish with cilantro & green chilies and serve with steamed Basmati rice.