This blog is getting “fishy”. By that I mean, like true Bengalis, the majority of the next few recipes will be fish based. Now mustard is a very tasty and essential ingredient in Bengali cuisine. And in our case, its a perfect match even during our diet. However the way it is prepared differs among various regions of Bengal – this is particularly visible in the cooking of our moms. Sumi, however, has learnt both the ways and she even has a version of her own. Today’s recipe is Sumi’s style of making the fish.

Sumi cooked this 3 months back. It was raining and we were hungry. Just a day back we bought quite a lot of fish from Spar and being a weekend she planned to cook for the entire week That woman’s crazy. The problem is she’s my woman hehehehe, so I sat through the whole ordeal. But in the end it was a yummy one. She cooked around 6 dishes, 3 fish ones, 1 chicken and 2 veggies. I am sure we took a pic of the whole spread. But I can’t find it right now. Anyways this is one of the fish ones. Its downright yummy.

Note – Sumi used Tilapia fish here. You can use any other fish you like instead like Rohu, Catla or Hilsa.

Ingredients

• 2 Tilapia fish cut into half
• 3 Tbsp white mustard paste
•  1 tsp chilli powder
• ½ tsp turmeric powder
• ½ tsp ginger paste
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 4-5 green chillies slit length wise
• Mustard Oil
• Salt as per taste
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp chopped fresh parsley

Method

Marinade the fish pieces with lemon juice, salt and turmeric powder. Set it aside for 20 min.

In a wok, add mustard oil. Heat till oil smokes, then reduce flame and add the fish pieces and fry them properly. It takes around 7-10 min to fry properly. Set the fried pieces aside.

Now add all the chopped onion, ginger paste,slit  green chillies, chilli powder and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the mustard paste and saute for ½ min in low flame and add the fish pieces. Sprinkle some water to coat the mustard properly with fish. Do not add more water.

Serve with 1 tsp raw mustard oil on top and chopped fresh parsley.