Shorshe Maach1

This is my mothers recipe. Typical bengali fish preparation done preferably with Hilsa fish for its distinct flavour and soft almost butter like texture. Any other fish can also be used.1) Clean, wash, cut fish pieces. Typically for bengali fish preparations, fish is cut in thin roundles. 2)Marinate fish in salt, turmeric and a tea spoon of mustard oil for 10-15 mins. This also helps in disinfecting the fish. 3) Soke mustard and poppy seeds in half cup of warm water to 20 mins and then grind them together in a smooth paste with 3 green chilies. Do not grind the paste for too long as this will cause the mustard to get bitter. There is another way of making this paste. These days mustard powder is easily available in the grocerry stores. So just grind soaked poppy seeds and chilies and add mustard powder to the paste. Some recipes of shorshe maach do not include poppy seeds, but the addition of poppy seeds not only enhances the taste, but also safegaurds against the gravy getting bitter if musturd paste is overcooked or over ground. 4) Put remaining oil in a pan or vok. Heat it until it reaches smoking point. This is standard technique when cooking with mustard oil. Then bring down the temperature of the oil to a medium high and add kalungi, remining green chilies slit length wise and turmeric powder. sprinkle a little water if needed. 5) Add the fish pieces to the pan. cover with a lid. Put the pan on low flame for 3-5 minutes depending on the kind of fish or thickness of the pieces of fish, the cooking time may varry. 6) Flip the fish pieces and add poppy mustard paste prepared earlier. Add a little water based on the quantity of gravy desired. Adjust salt. Add 0.5 teaspoon of sugar. Then cover and cook for 3-5 minutes. Serve with hot steamed rice. A variation of this prepartion can be done by addition of cut pieces of colocacia leaves. (Arbi ke patte). This gives a distinct aroma and taste which goes very well with Hilsa fish.