Maacher Tel Jhol - Fish in Spiced Oil

 

Maacher Tel Jhol

It was getting late one evening and creeping into the last hour before dinner, when I realized the protein part of dinner was missing. We usually have 3 dishes at dinner comprising lentils, vegetables and a protein. Fortunately, Hubby had shopped at Sam's Club earlier in the day and brought home his favorite Tilapia fillets. The only prep required to make this fish was to cut the fillets into bite-sized pieces and slice an onion. It was done in a jiffy, and, without missing a beat, dinner was on the table at our usual time.

Pan-Fried Fish with Bok Choy

Pan-Fried Fish
with Bok Choy

This is a simple and delicious combination, quick and easy to prepare, that tastes great with steamed long-grain rice.

Shada or Pani Khola Maach - Fish Stew

Fish Stew

As you can surmise from this photograph, my kitchen caters to Jack Spratt and his wife. As the nursery rhyme goes,

Jack Spratt could eat no fat

And his wife could eat no lean.

And so betwixt the two of them

They kept the platter clean.

The man in this house is tall and lean and his wife, the opposite. She lives to eat and he eats to live. She loves 'bone-in everything' and he likes a no-fuss meal. That's why this fish stew is made with two cuts of fish. Nice, fatty fish steaks of Swai or Mekong catfish for the wife and fillets of Tilapia for Jack.

I didn't expect too much from such a simple recipe. There are only 5 ingredients to consider but requires killer prep. The most tedious part is to mash slivered onions, salt, green chilies and mustard oil until your hands ache and all the juices from the onions release. This takes a total of at least 15-20 minutes, so I do it in batches. I add salt to the onions and let them sit until they soften and then mash them. When my hands begin aching, I take a break, a sip of coffee, flex my fingers, relax a bit and go back to mashing the onions. In the end, all this effort pays off because not only is the stew light and refreshing, it's also easily digested which suits Jack Spratt to a Tee.

From all the recipes I've perused, this is generally made with hilsa or ilish maach, which I can only dream of because it's difficult to come by in North America. So I've adapted to my environment and learned to live with the scarcity of specialty fish. 

This is best served with steamed long-grain rice.

Bhapa Maach - Steamed Fish in Mustard Gravy

 

Bhapa Maach

Translated from Bengali to English:

Bhapa - Steamed

Maach - Fish

Most of my cooking is influenced by three sources. First of all, Mum and my siblings, the internet and cookbooks. Check the end of this blog for a link to the original source on the internet or from a cookbook. Modifications and adjustments are necessary, depending upon the quantities of ingredients available and how much spice is tolerated by those being catered to.

The inspiration video used 2 different kinds of fish and shrimp in this dish. I used 2 fillets of tilapia and steamed the fish in a rice cooker. The addition of raw mustard oil gives this fish the pungent flavour of mustard without all the hard work of soaking and blending mustard seeds.

This dish is best served with freshly steamed Basmati rice.

Phool Kopi Alu Diye Tilapia Maacher Jhol

Tilapia with Cauliflower and Potatoes

Cauliflower adds a special touch to fish curry, and is one of my favourite vegetables. The fish pieces, cauliflower and potatoes are all tossed with turmeric and salt and are fried, separately, to a golden brown before being added to a gravy. The gravy is composed of onions, tomatoes and ginger paste to which the powdered spices, dissolved together in a few tablespoons of water, are added. The dish is garnished with cilantro and jalapeno peppers.

Served over a bed of steamed rice, this main dish takes center stage at any Bengali meal.

Sorshe Bata Maach - Fish in Mustard Gravy

Shorshe Bata Maach

This is a favourite main dish prepared in my household. Black mustard seeds sauce has a sharp and pungent taste that is similar to Wasabi or spicy Chinese mustard sauce. Some people combine mustard sauce with poppy seed paste to tone down the pungency, but that is frowned upon in my family. 

To prepare the sauce, black mustard seeds must be soaked in tepid water for at least two hours or preferably overnight. The seeds, along with water in which it was soaking, is placed in a blender jar with salt and a green chili, blended at maximum setting until smooth, and then added to the fish.

Any white fish, cleaned and left whole, cut in steaks or filleted can be used according to taste and is best served with hot, long-grained rice.

Tilapia Maach'er Tel Jhol - Tilapia Fillets in Mustard Oil Gravy

Tilapia Fillets in Mustard Oil Gravy

This is a delectable way of preparing fish when you're craving a tasty fish dish to have with hot and fragrant Basmati rice. It takes less than 10 minutes to prepare on the stove top and is finger-licking good! To save time on the days I cook, when fish arrives home on marketing day, they are cut into serving size pieces, rubbed with salt and turmeric powder and stored in Ziploc bags, ready to slide into a skillet on demand.

The gravy is so simple to assemble that the resulting goodness at the end is a pleasurable surprise.  It's perfect for those busy days when the choice between going out to eat or enjoying a hot bowl of rice with fish at home is a no-brainer! And it uses only a few ingredients that are staples in any Indian home.

Dilled Tilapia

Dilled Tilapia

I first had this at a Vietnamese restaurant, of all places. It was made and served on a cast iron sizzling plate which created a lovely crust on the base, and was accompanied by hot, steamed rice, I wanted for nothing more!

At home, I pan-fry it which is also delicious.

Fish Curry with Eggplant and Lentil Dumplings

Begun Bori Diye Macher Jhol

I've made variations of this dish and blogged about them in the past. Today I combined eggplants with dried lentil dumplings or bori in this Maacher Jhol. There was an abundance of eggplants in the fridge, of the Japanese variety, which are my favourite. Bori are little nuggets of "deliciousness" which add another dimension to anything they're added to. They are salted so make sure not to add salt without first tasting the gravy.

Jeera Guro Diye Maacher Jhol - Fish in Cumin Gravy

Jeera Guro Diye Maacher Jhol

Another quick and easy gravy for fish. Any white fish such as snapper, carp or whitefish works in this recipe. Since we all love eggplant, it's one way to sneak vegetables into a meal. Cumin seeds are roasted in a dry pan without oil and ground to a fine powder for the gravy.

This main dish is best served with basmati or jasmine rice.

Tilapia Maacher Tel Jhol - Tilapia in Mustard Oil Gravy

This is a delectable way of preparing fish when you're craving a tasty fish dish to have with hot, fragrant Basmati rice. It takes less than 10 minutes to prepare on the stove top and is finger-licking good! To save time on the days I cook, when fish arrives home on marketing day, they are cut into serving size pieces, rubbed with salt and turmeric powder and stored in Ziploc bags, ready to slide into a skillet on demand.

The gravy is so simple to assemble that the resulting goodness at the end is a pleasurable surprise.  It's perfect for those busy days when the choice between going out to eat or enjoying a hot rice bowl with fish at home is a no-brainer! And it uses only 5 ingredients if spices are omitted.

Fish with Garlic, Tomatoes and Green Onions

Rosun r Pyaj Koli Diye Maacher Jhol

My previous post detailed my memories attached to this dish. After consulting with my big sister, I was able to reproduce my Mamima, or aunt's recipe more accurately. The coarsely ground mustard seeds in my prior post were replaced with garlic which gives this gravy a lighter, fresher appearance and taste .

Any white fish, such as snapper, tilapia or carp, will work for this recipe and it goes without saying that fish cut in steaks with the bones intact, always taste much better than filleted fish. I used both sliced onions and onion paste and also added potatoes to this fish curry.

2018 Father's Day Dinner

2018 Father's Day Dinner

Clockwise from top left:

Steamed Rice

Easy Tilapia & Cauliflower in Coconut Gravy

Masur Dal with Pickled Radish

Ghoogni - Chickpeas in Cream Sauce

Tilapia Macher Jhal - Tilapia in Mustard Sauce

Tilapia in Mustard Sauce

The simplest of fish curries, this is a favourite among Bengali families. I love tilapia because it's very mild with little or no fishy smell and it's easily available in supermarkets any time of year. Japanese eggplants go very well with fish and cook in no time at all.

While I was cruising around an Asian supermarket, I came across a bottle of "hot dressing oil". Turns out, it's a concentrated combination of mustard oil and wasabi oil. It has a fantastic aroma and made me tear up because it's so pungent. Just 10-12 drops of this oil applied to the fish while it was left to marinate gave it the perfect touch of mustard oil flavour. 

Here's one of the easiest ways to prepare fish curry.

Nga Hsi Pyan - Burmese Fish Curry in Red Sauce

Nga Hsi Pyan

The holy trinity or mirepoix in Burmese cooking consists of pureed/pounded onions, garlic and soaked dried red chillies. 'Nga' means fish and 'Sipyan' means 'oil returns'.  So that I don't have to skimp on the oil, I use a healthy oil such as extra-light olive oil in all my cooking.  The other thing to keep in mind is that for the full flavour to develop, this dish must be simmered on low heat for as long as it takes for the liquid to evaporate and oil to resurface.

Any fish can be used in this dish, cut into steaks leaving the bone in, or boneless fish fillets.

Dilled Tilapia

Dilled Tilapia

The tilapia fillets that were defrosted today were too thin to withstand a gravy, so they were chopped into little cubes and quickly stir-fried with potatoes. Dried dill weed is not often used in my kitchen, but was a great substitute for cilantro which I did not have. This stir-fry was quick & easy to prepare and tasted quite awesome.

Maach er Malai Curry - Fish Cooked in Coconut Milk

Use any white fish steaks or pieces in this delicious coconut milk gravy which tastes best served on a bed of steamed Basmati rice. I've used catfish, rock cod and telapia fish, all with excellent results. 

Freshly grated coconut tied in muslin cloth and squeezed to extract the milk works the best, but in the Western hemisphere, canned coconut milk is most readily available and makes a good substitute for fresh coconut. If coconut milk is not available, unsweetened evaporated (not condensed) milk can be used as a substitute.

This same process can also be used with chicken legs and thighs for another variation of malai curry, which is also true for shrimp, which is especially delectable. 

The fish I used today came from a membership supermarket (Costco/Sam's Club) in a 3 lb. fresh pack. I sliced them up, divided them between 3 Ziploc bags, seasoned them with turmeric powder and salt and froze them for later use. Thawed in the sink, it makes life much easier when it comes time to cook. 

Tilapia Fillets Cooked with Slices of Raw Mango

Tok Maach

This dish is to die for! In Rangoon (Burma/Myanmar) this was made with whole Topshe maach (Mango Fish). I used filleted fish pieces which is not the same at all! Mum used to make it with Topshe maach, potatoes and wedges of green mangoes. A Bangladeshi market opened up in our neighbourhood and I found frozen raw mango in packages. I used about 10 slices in a pound of fish and it came out too tangy. Perhaps the unsweetened, dried mango slices in Mango Fish are a better bet or the amount of raw mango slices should be cut down drastically and ground to a paste before adding to the gravy.

Burmese Fish with Drumsticks

Dant-da-lone-thee and Fish

Recipe Source: Doris Thaw on Burmese Food Lovers' Kitchen - Facebook.

Drumsticks or dant-da-lone-thee in Burmese has to be eaten by hand because, like sugar cane in the raw, the fun in eating them lies in sucking and chewing on these fibrous canes.

This fish dish is sour and spicy and totally delicious! I made a couple of changes to the original recipe. Having run out of shrimp sauce (ngapi) I used dried shrimp floss with dried chillies in its place. Since Hubby can't handle food that is too spicy, I substituted Kashmiri mirch in place of chili powder. Kashmiri mirch is akin to paprika, but has a brighter colour and is more flavourful. I also used a small quantity of beef concentrate because I'd run out of chicken concentrate.

Recipe Source: Doris Thaw on Burmese Food Lovers' Kitchen - Facebook.

Prep time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 30-35 mins
Servings: 2

Ingredients:
1 fish fillet (6-8 oz.)
½ pkt. (about 20 pieces of the drumsticks)
1 medium size white onion
4 cloves garlic
2 tablespoon cooking oil (I prefer corn oil)
1 ripe red tomato
A pinch of “ngapi” fish paste or dried shrimp floss with chilli
½ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon chilli powder or Kashmiri mirch
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
1 chicken bouillon cube (Can use one 14 oz. can of chicken broth)
4 cups of water (2 if using chicken broth)
1 teaspoon fresh seedless tamarind flesh
1 handful of shredded cilantro for garnish

Directions:

1. Cut fish into 2" pieces.
2. Rinse the drumsticks.
3. Mince the garlic and onions coarsely.
4. Chop the tomato into small pieces.
5. On medium, heat oil for a minute and add the onions and garlic and stir for 1-2 minutes.
6. Add tomatoes, chilli, turmeric and fish paste and stir for 2-3 more minutes.
7. Add fish and drumsticks, chicken bouillon and water. Simmer on low for 15-20 minutes.
8. Rinse tamarind and add ¼ cup of hot water. Use a fork to mash the tamarind. Add to pot and simmer for another 5-10 minutes.
9. Add fish sauce and garnish with cilantro.

Serve immediately with hot steamed rice.

Fish & Potatoes with Lentil Dumplings in Ginger-Tomato Gravy

Tengra Maach Alu Bori

Tilapia Maach Alu Bori

This recipe was inspired by one I saw on Facebook. I've made very few changes to the original recipe which was made with Rohu fish or carp which is not readily available in my neighbourhood. I soaked the boris in hot water to soften them up, just because this is how it's done in my family. To make the gravy, I heated the water along with the boris in the microwave and added it to the pan. 

Why two kinds of fish? The top one's for me. Made with whole bone-in fish it has cumin and chili powder in the gravy. The other fish is for Hubby, made with tilapia fillets and without chili and cumin powders. Both are cooked in a ginger and tomato gravy with potatoes and lentil dumplings (bori in Bengali).

The tomato gravy is made with Campari tomatoes which are of medium size and so sweet that it's not necessary to add any sugar to the gravy. Campari tomatoes are grown in Mexico, shipped to Ontario, Canada (for packaging I think) and then reach our markets in Michigan. Kind of a circuitous route, don't you think?