Spicy Tilapia Fry with Egg Fried Rice

Ingredients

4 Tilapia fillets

Tartar sauce (for serving)

1 tbsp white oil

For marinade 

1 tbsp sriracha sauce

1 tbsp soya sauce

2 tsp chicken tandoori powder

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp garlic powder 

1/2 tsp ginger powder

2 tbsp white oil

For Fried Rice

1 cup of rice (cooked)

1 egg

1 tsp soya sauce

1 tbsp butter

Salt to taste

A pinch of black pepper (optional)

Method

1) Mix all the ingredients for marinade in a bowl. Then use the mixture to marinade the fish fillets. Keep the marinaded fish in the refrigerator for up to two hours.

2) Preheat oven to 370 F. 

3) Heat oil in a nonstick pan and fry the marinaded fillets on both sides on medium high for 3-4 minutes.

4) When the oven is ready, put the fish in an oven proof dish and cook for 3-4 minutes on both sides each. 

5) While the fish is getting ready, heat butter in a nonstick pan and add egg. Scramble the egg and add soya sauce. Add a pinch of black pepper, cooked rice and salt. Fry the rice on medium high for 2-3 minutes, stirring once or twice. 

6) Now serve the fried fish on a bed of fried rice with a spoonful of tartar sauce. 

Bhapa Elish - Bhapa Hilsa

I am yet to meet a Bengali who does not drool over Elish. Two of the favorite foods of traditional Bengalis are mango and Elish. Of the variety of ways my mother cooks Elish, Bhapa Elish is my most favorite. The pungent taste of mustard seeds enhances the sublime flavor of Elish manifold. Earlier I posted a microwave version of Bhapa Elish, but today I am posting the recipe of Bhapa Elish cooked in steamer. I used a normal Indian steamer available in grocery stores. I put the fishes in a tiffin box, snap the lid into it and then put it inside the perforated floor of the steamer. It took about 25 minutes to get the fishes cooked. 

Hot Spicy Red Snapper

Ever since we came to the USA, we always visited Golam Produce Market in Ann Arbor to buy our favorite Kolkata fishes. The quality of the fishes, hilsa, koi, katla, pabda, rohu, tyangra, and the like, sold at Golum is excellent. In fact, the of quality and freshness of the fishes sold at Golam surpasses the standard of that of Kolkata. However, recently I don't know what happened, the owner, who was a middle-aged man from Bangladesh, sold the business to a man from Middle East. Now I have little idea if people in the Middle East eat fishes and even if they do, they surely don't devour the same variety of fishes that we Bengalis do. That I was not wrong in my assumption was proven this time when I visited Golam with the new owner at the helm. When I asked for hilsa, the new owner, to my amusement, pointed in the direction of some giant pomfrets, the size I have never seen earlier, making it evident that he didn't have any idea of hilsa or how it looks like. As I became sad worrying if the new owner was going to supply the same quality fishes sold by the previous owner and was contemplating to make a quick run out of the shop, I was moved by the hospitality of the new owner and his team. To the best of their efforts, they set to searching for the fishes I asked for in their inventory, and save for hilsa and koi, they got me rohu, pabda, and tyangra. They also had other variety of fishes such as white fish, kingfish, and red snapper, but since these three types of fishes are not commonly consumed in West Bengal, I have little familiarity with them. However, once in Goa, I had an awesome red snapper curry and though a few times I tried to cook red snapper at home following the style of cooking fishes observed in Kolkata, those undertakings did not turn out satisfactory. So I was in search of a good recipe of red snapper, and I found the recipe of Red Hot Chili Fish Curry at NDTV by Joey Matthew. Though the original dish was prepared using coconut oil, I used white oil in preparing mine. Also, I tried to avoid adding too much chili powder into my dish. I used two teaspoons of chili powder instead of two tablespoons. I also boiled and ground the kokum.

Kumro Pabda - Pabda Fish with Pumpkins

My days are going really busy these days. Hence I am unable to update my post as frequently as I used to. I am really sorry for that but I will get back to my frequent mode once the course that I am doing is over.

 

Facebook is a boon in one way that it has brought so many of my friends, separated after college or university, together in one place for interaction which otherwise we would not have been able to do. Recently one of my fellow batch mates in University contacted me over Facebook and she being near our city in Illinois we didn't let the chance go for a get-together and there we went driving for 3 and half hours to her place last weekend and her baby is so cute and adorable that you would just feel like cuddling him throughout the day. We had so much fun at her place and she cooked this delicious Kumro Pabda among a slew of other items which I ravenously consumed. Her husband is a good chef and loves experimenting with food and on that note though we met each other for the first time, we got along instantly. He shared some recipes with me and I cooked this Kumro Pabda at home yesterday. It is a simple neat preparation but awesome in taste. A must try if you love pabda.

Sorshe Elish - Hilsa in Mustard Gravy

Life is so unpredictable. At one moment you are performing acrobatic stunts and the next moment you are dead. Day before yesterday we went to the Dayton Airshow in which we witnessed live crash of a plane that killed two, one was the famous wing walker Jane Wicker and another was the pilot. It feels so weird to think that we have captured her last moments in our camera and the plane crashed so suddenly in front of our eyes that it took me few moments coming to terms with the accident. I have never witnessed a mishap before and I pray to God I don't see another. It is a saddening experience watching someone hale and hearty dying instantaneously. The memory of the accident is still giving me goose bumps. All our lives we make plans for this and that forgetting that any moment we could be snapped out of life.

I am not in the best of my mind to write anything cheerful today. This recipe was waiting in my draft for last one week. It is one of the very popular Hilsa preparations relished all over the Bengal. This recipe has lot of variants but this one cooked by my mother is my all-time favorite. Hope you will find it delightful.

Rohu Kadhi

Today one of my friends was ruing over the fact that I don't upload recipes that can be made superfast in a jiffy. She said that some recipes should target the segment of working women who after coming back from home don't have enough time and energy to cook a fancy meal. I know not many but there are few recipes I have uploaded which can be made very quickly and they are my saviors in those days when I don't like cooking with any elaborate preparation. Check out the below lists:

Egg Chatpata (10 minutes)

Egg Drop Curry (20 minutes)

Simple Yogurty Alu Dum (20 minutes)

Potato Drumsticks in Yogurt Sauce (20 minutes)

Bengali Aloo Curry Kalo Jeera Diye (20 minutes)

Avocado Pasta (10 minutes)

South Indian Style Potato Curry (15-20 minutes)

There are many recipes out there which don't require a long list of ingredients and can be put together within the same timeframe. The below recipe too is an easy one if you can manage to get the fishes fried somehow (may be with the help of your husband ;)...they are good at this task.) and the rest can be made within 5 minutes.
 

Tetul Diye Elish - Tamarind Hilsa

 

 

 

Monsoon was the only season when hilsa used to flood the market. We have grown up seeing that trend only, waiting for a year after the end of one monsoon for another to take a bite into hilsa fish. But these days, thanks to the much improved refrigeration technique hilsa is available round the year. At least here in US we get hilsa all the time and the quality is outstanding.

Not wasting much time in dabbling, let’s get on to the recipe which is pretty innovative with tamarind pulp adding to the flavor.
 

 

Aar Maach Shorshe Diye

Today morning as I woke up and looked outside the window, the sight of the snow clad lawn sprawled in front of our apartment caught my eye. We will soon be rolling into the month of April and it is still snowing here, thankfully, the temperature is tolerable. It is still below minus, but compared to what it was even a month back, the weather is turning for the better. At least one can walk in the open for 30 minutes at a stretch without much ado. With winter beginning to backtrack, the teeny weeny bit of rise in the temperature is telltale sign of an imminent spring.

 

Already due to the clock being set forward by an hour, we see the sun up in the sky shining in full glory till around 8 o'clock in the evening. It feels really nice.

Anyway, few weeks back I posted the recipe of Aar Maach Kalo Jeera Bata Diye which is earning me a lot of page views, reasons enough for feeling motivated to post another recipe of Aar Maach with eggplant and bodi floating in mustard based gravy. I used a mixed batch of home-made masur dal bodi and urad dal bodi. In case if you are not familiar with bodi, bodis are tiny sun dried or oven baked dumplings that are used extensively in Bengali preparation, mainly vegetables but sometimes with unusual fishes like Aar Maach, addition of bodis takes the dish to entirely a new level of enjoyment. 

 

Hilsa in Vinegar Sauce

I don't know if the problem is with my husband only or if the trait is common among all men that they don't do things unless reminded 100 times over. One very interesting quirk of my husband is if I tell him to do a certain thing in kitchen, he comes and engages himself in doing all sorts of other nonsense other than the work I assign him to. Any work requiring gentle handling if I assign mindlessly to my hubby, sure he is going to ruin it. Once while going to a party I was trying to wrap a bracelet, that I beaded myself painstakingly through many days, around my wrist but somehow could not manage to bind the clasp when I had to call my hubby for help.  He came, jerked the clasp with such a force that the bracelet intricately woven in beads fell pell-mell into tiny bits on the ground, to my utter dismay. Our refrigerator is another item subjected to his force of strength every now and then. Recently while opening the fridge he pulled the door with such might that the buckle around the front shelf on the door came loose and all the things stuffed in the shelf tumbled out on to the floor, splinters of a jar of cherry preserves flying through the air. It was not the first time he made such a mess by the way, whenever I see him around the fridge knowing his nature I tell him to practice caution while opening the door but he is he; my words go in with one ear and out with the other. 

 

 

Then the other day I sent him to the market to buy boneless chicken and chicken broth. He returned home with two packages of chicken broth but there was no sight of boneless chicken. When enquired, he scratching his head told me that he forgot about the chicken and accused me rather that I should have reminded him when he was going out. Now I don't know how many times I need to echo the reminders. Again he rushed to the market to buy boneless chicken. I think I can write an entire diary narrating episodes of such breakage and losing of items caused by my hubby's carefree calamitous nature. Recollection of those incidents later brings a smile on my face but at the time of occurrence, all I feel is sheer irritation.

Hilsa in Vinegar Sauce is an interesting concoction the recipe of which I picked up essentially from a cookery show. It is interesting because it has no hassle of chopping veggies involved. It can be made in one of those busy days when you want to cook fish curry speedily with little preparation . 

 

 

Shalgam Diye Rui Maach - Rohu Fish with Turnip

Shalgam in English is called Turnip. Though in Bengal, shalgam is not as popularly used as the other vegetables like potato, bottle gourd, eggplant, pumpkin, radish and papaya, my mother makes varieties of preparations with shalgam. It tastes really nice, somewhat close to the taste of bottle gourd and potato combined. Turnip roots are a rich source of anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals and fibers. Because of its low calorie content, addition of turnip roots in your regular diet helps you keep your weight under control.

 

Recently I made this rohu curry substituting potato with shalgam, the turnout came out to be delicious to say the least. Both me and my hubby relished the fish curry with steamed rice for two days to the full satisfaction of our tummies. This curry besides fulfilling the craving of your palate satisfies those of the nutritional needs of your body.

 

For more of fish recipes, please click the links below:

Rohu Methi Curry

Rui Lau Exotica

Lemony Garlicky Rohu withCheese

Rohu Fish Korma

Kalo Jeera Diye Rui

Aar Maach Kalojeera Bata Diye

My mother though very fond of fishes has this typical inhibition towards trying fishes she had not

tasted in her growing years. For example, she doesn’t eat aar maach, boyal, loitta etc on the ground

of having never eaten any of these fishes during her formation period. She would cook these fishes

with such precision that she doesn't know the taste of them would appear a bit shocking. Many a

time me and my sister tried all our means to convince our mother for having a bite into Aar maach,

the fish she cooks so deliciously taking an effort so much as asking neighbors and relatives for

recipes. But she is mulish not to even try.

 

 

 

 Those who have tasted Aar maach know how its taste bears a hint of boyal and bhekti combined

together. I for one love this fish a lot. My father and my in laws all are very fond of Aar Mach.

Though its not so easy availability outside Bengal has impeded this fish from growing popular, but

 for Bengalis, after Hilsa, Rui and Katla, Aaar maach creates a typical wow moment.

Rohu Fish Korma

I wish onion juice just like ginger and garlic paste could be available readymade in the market . A lot of time spent into extracting the juice from onion would have been saved to use otherwise. That brings in mind the era of our mother and grandmothers who in the absence of readymade spice powder used to grind spices painstakingly at home, manually, on a grinding stone which still is very much in use across Kolkata in traditional households. Now what is a grinding stone or popularly called in Bengal as shil nora, one not familiar with Bengali way of cooking might enquire. It is a pocked stone slab used for grinding an array of essential cooking items - ginger, garlic, onion, cumin, coriander and the like into paste. I have seen my mother grinding poppy seeds rolling the mortar back and forth on the shil nora, with her forehead covered with beads of sweat, while she paused every now and then rearranging the paste with the tip of her fingers to repeat the grinding process until poppy seeds were crushed into a wet pulp. Without the aid of modern day gadgets, cooking was definitely not a simple affair but still our mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers smilingly managed cooking a wholesome fare comprising 10-15 dishes for all the members of huge joint families. Cooking on such large scale, every day, is simply out of our imagination now. 

My mother always criticizes our generation of women being so impatient with everything seeking immediate outputs on every effort and in pursuit of career and dreams putting the most important things of life on the backburner like family and relationships. I cannot quite disagree with her thought. It's true that women of our generation don't have patience coming close to that of our mother's generation who sacrificed every small desire for the sake of families with an ever-present smile and selflessness that has become a rarity now. However, it's equally true our ways of life are far more complicated than theirs and we cannot be blamed for the complication entirely because with the technological evolution and economic progress, the world dynamics are thrown into a whole new level completely different from that of our earlier generation. There are many aspects of life we now deal with that our mothers had never come face to face with. For example, there was a time when people with moderate earnings could build a house for themselves in the heart of Kolkata, however humble the structure may be, but in today's time erecting your own house in a plot purchased by you is almost unthinkable. With the population explosion and high inflation rate it has become a necessity for us to become more serious about our career and growth and contribute to family income, just to live well.

I believe our mothers were lucky in a way that they were born at a time when life was simple. Although all of us crave for simplicity in life, with the fast changing world simplicity and complete mental peace are two things elusive to many. 

Rohu Fish Korma is a very interesting recipe. Usually, Bengalis deep fry most of the fishes before making gravy with them, only exception being is Hilsa which is not deep fried to keep its juicy flavour intact. On the other hand, I have seen a lot of fish eating people hailing from places like Chennai, Kerala not deep frying fishes while cooking them. I think deep frying fishes before making gravy is a practice unique to Bengal. This is my first of such attempt at cooking rohu curry without deep frying the fishes. I must tell you the turnout was awesome. My finicky husband doubtful of how the taste would turn out while I was cooking it also ended up passing compliments on the end result. One thing you must be careful of is to show little generosity towards the amount of oil you use. 

Lettuce Bhetki

We all know piranha is a deadly animal known for its ferocity to eat people alive. We all must have

heard one story or the other, each horrific to the extent of making our blood run cold about how a

man fallen accidentally into a pool infested with piranhas had the lower half of his body stripped of

 flesh within minutes. Now what makes piranhas so ravenous for our blood, one might wonder. I

watched a program once showcased on Animal Planet hosted by Jeremy Wade who tried different

means to demonstrate the reasons for piranhas to have their attention drawn towards humans and

 he came upon a very interesting fact. Please visit the following link to read more:

http://gomratherium.blogspot.com/2012/01/deadly-piranha.html

I have few bunches of lettuce leaves resting in the refrigerator for over a week, though I have made

use of some in sandwiches, I was wondering about how to use the rest. I had this recipe I

collected from a culinary show written across the pages of my diary for a long time now, hence not

willing to let go of the opportunity to try this dish; I cooked it yesterday over dinner. More or less I

hewed to the original recipe; the only exception was the use of cream that I have added on my own.

It came out to be mouth-watering, albeit different in taste. The freshness and chunkiness of Bhetki

fillets increased the flavour of the dish to a great degree making the dinner worth remembrance.

Hope you guys will lap it up with pleasure. 

Muri Ghonto

One of the very popular Bengali dishes, Muri Ghonto is traditionally cooked with a special variety

 of rice available only in Bengal and rohu fish head. Gobindobhog rice is small grain rice

prevalently used in concocting myriads of delicacies, Payesh, khichuri to name a few. Sweet in

flavour, it is known for infusing a beautiful fragrance into the dishes. Outside Bengal, gobindobhog

is not very easily available as upon months long scouting we came across a shop in Bangalore at Hal

 Market selling the rice only on some selective days. So we had to check over once in a while as

 regards the availability of the rice, which again was a painful job as the market was considerably

far from our home and going there every week called for a compromise on other necessary chores.

 Therefore, most of the time we relied on the supply brought from Kolkata.

 

Muri Ghonto has its variation too where instead of rice, lentil goes into the making but across West

 Bengal, Muri Ghonto with rice is the most popular version and I love it this way because at my

home, my mother used to prepare it with rice only. If gobindobhog is not available in your region,

you may substitute it with any other small grain rice to your liking, but then I cannot vouch for the

taste. Since carrying over rice of any sort from India is banned in US, I now rely on the online

shopping of gobindobhog conveniently couriered to my home.  Though the purchase overall is little

expensive compared to that of India but it's worth the price.

Rui Macher Kalia

I was in for a surprise when yesterday while shuffling through my recipes, I discovered the recipe of Rohu Fish Kalia missing from the list. It's unbelievable. In my attempt to try a whole spectrum of unique fish preparations, I gave the most common yet the most popular Rohu curry of Bengal a miss. Trust me, it was not deliberate. Rui Macher Kalia is quite staple in our home, but somehow the recipes which are not so easily available on the net or which are not so common a preparation in our part of the world got more preference in my blog or rather simply put, I was more in favour of this idea of posting the experimental recipes frequently in my blog than the common ones which are cooked at every home. Whatever the reason may be, I was shocked not to have found the recipe of Rui Macher Kalia uploaded in my blog. As far as my memory goes, I have taken the pictures of the curry every time I made it at home, but at the last moment I might have become engrossed with something or the other. My mind never remains in one place for long, normal for anyone tugged between career and family. So the skip happened.

Anyway better late than never, Rohu Fish Kalia as I have mentioned is one of the popular rohu fish preparations in Bengal. Before the fashion of caterer service or verbosity of menu came into picture, traditionally in our marriages in West Bengal, all the food arrangements on special occasions like marriage or rice ceremony were done by a group of 'thakurs' who had been into the profession of cooking from generation after generation. Rui Macher Kalia used to be a sacrosanct item in their menu. In my childhood I attended many such marriages or occasions where Rui Macher Kalia or Katla Macher Kalia were served in the fish menu. The oil and ghee glistening on the surface of the gravy easily came to notice evoking temptation. However, these days no longer Rui Macher Kalia is served in marriage ceremonies, other fancy preparations having taken its place. 

 

Borishali Elish

Yesterday was a pretty eventful day for me. Eventful for the event etched a lesson on my mind I would not forget for sure at least some time soon. I was planning to cook a bucket of festival goodies to share among friends and colleagues for which I started the preparation of nimkis, a must have item in any festival menu. Rice flour and all-purpose flour both look identical and are of similar texture; it's difficult to distinguish them just by taste. I have them stored in two identical looking jars on my kitchen shelf. Added to the fraternity is another similar looking ingredient - the confectioners' sugar, which, thankfully, has a distinct taste of sweetness making it easily recognizable.

 

 

So three jars that are carbon copies of each other with content exactly alike are bound to create confusion; adding to the woe is the fact that the jar of all-purpose flour was empty for a week which I forgot to refill and rice flour having been of occasional use totally slipped out of my mind. So, as was inevitable, I confused rice flour with all-purpose flour and kneaded dough twice with the same wondering why the dough was falling apart. It took me a second round of kneading to perceive the error and by that time it was too late for I have already kneaded two crumbly doughs blowing about 750 gm of rice flour, a considerable amount of ghee, oil and butter each, not to mention the drainage of my enthusiasm.

It is utterly frustrating when an hour worth labour goes to waste for one single error of judgment. As a precautionary measure to help me next time such confusion happens, I have now stuck labels upon all the three jars with the name of the content written on them.

Lemony Garlicky Rohu with Cheese

Sandy has hit and wrought havoc in eastern coastal areas. Some places are reported to be still under waist deep water with no power supply over 24 hours. Before the impact of Sandy could wear out in US, another cyclone called Nilam has hit the Tamil Nadu coast in India. Conditions there are in total mayhem with 8 people already dead and scores of people affected by the heavy damages. The way world is in total turmoil right now, I can only feel the prophecy made in the movie Doomsday looming larger in our near destiny. What you guys will do if you ever come to know of the world ending a month after? I, for one, would pack off my bags, go to Kolkata and gather up with my friends and relatives to have a feast and will spend the last few days in merriment eating, drinking and dancing. What say!! No point in sulking over something not within your power, so the best is to accept the inevitable with open arms.

 

 

Anyway, the following rohu preparation I learned from my mother in law. She cooked this curry when the last time we paid a visit, some 7-8 months ago. It was so tasty that I ate one bowlful of this curry with 3-4 fishes in one go.

Tangra Maach Begun Diye - Tangra Eggplant Curry

Hurricane Sandy is touching the base today in the evening. Throughout the East coast everyone has been told to evacuate homes and take shelter in somewhere safe. All the flights have been cancelled for the day. It's being claimed that Sandy is one of the most powerful superstorms no one alive today has witnessed. Sandy is expected to affect 60 million people bringing out unforeseen devastation including indefinite period of power outages, flooding and potential heavy wind damages. Sandy has already claimed 67 lives on its path across the Caribbean last week and now New York is bracing itself for the impending catastrophe.

 

 

Some of my friends staying in New York have uploaded snaps, on Facebook, of deserted shelves in Wal-Mart, deserted streets in otherwise busy Manhattan, wooden planks being plastered on the glass panes of departmental stores, piles of sacks filled with sands heaped in front of the closed shutter of restaurants as precautionary measures to withstand the storm.  

Since yesterday here in Ohio, we could feel the wind blowing strongly than ever with the temperature suddenly dropping to a freezing degree. As I was out on practice driving along a narrow road yesterday, at 45 mph speed I could feel the gust of wind lashing against my car, I anchored my hands as firmly as possible upon the wheel to prevent the car swaying sideways. Throughout the time I was behind the wheel, I was on my toes while my hubby was quietly smiling beside me, enjoying my trepidation. So mean, truly.

 

 

Back to the recipe, we all are familiar with Elish preparation with eggplant, but this one is an uncommon concoction of Tangra and Begun (eggplant in Bengali). I never had any idea before I tried this that Tangra could harmonize so tastefully with begun.

Elish Macher Dimer Chochchori

Ha ha ha ha...the take of the Khap Panchayat in Hariyana accusing fast food (read chowmein) of arousing men to commit rapes sent me cackling in a fit of laughter when the news caught my notice the first time and now a follow-up satirical article on Times of India set me onto another round of bellyaching hysteria. I never dreamed chowmein among all would become a subject of controversy due to an ignorant Indian leader viewing it as a stimulant for eroticism, completely bizarre to say the least. The jokes passing around Facebook since then over chowmein are just too funny to ignore, one of them read "Babo will be serving a plate of chowmein tonight to Saifu darling, her newly wed husband."

 

The article linked below offers a parodical review on the subject with a stunning opening line "Chowmein will soon officially replace Viagra in India as the scheduled prescription drug to enhance potency in men..... This move is significant as chowmein will now be a restricted commodity and will be moved from the food and beverages industry to the pharmaceutical industry". Please click the link below to enjoy 10 minutes of belly laugh.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/mocktale/Chowmein-to-replace-Viagra-in-pharma-shops-across-India/articleshow/16852369.cms?

 

Back to the recipe, Elish Macher Dimer Chochchori is another exciting preparation of hilsa roe, next to Elish Macher Dimer Tok Mishti Ambol. Savoury and flavoursome, this dish goes best with rice and paratha.

 

Bata Macher Jhal

Recently while hopping through profiles of my niece's classmates, I came across an album of a boy studying in class XI in one of the most reputed schools of India. Apparently he posted pics of his Shantiniketan visit with captions and comments, some made by his own younger brother that were so revolting in nature that ignoring them as juvenile vagary would be unfair to the person, who was the butt of their ridicule, Rabindranath Tagore. Growing up in a cultural city like Kolkata, I have seen people making fun of legendary figures but none was ever so derogatory and offensive to the core. The comments made at the expense of Rabi Thakur were essentially very insulting in tone, something that would make anyone who has grown up listening to the songs and reading the poems of Rabindranath Tagore fly into rage.

 

As appeared in the pictures, the boys went to Shantiniketan with their parents who seemed pretty decent and well-stationed in life, well, has to be because affording the regular fees of that expensive school is not everyone's cup of tea. But evidently the parents failed miserably in one thing that is instilling in their wards a little bit of value and respect for the culture that is rooted in Shantiniketan.

 

Turning to the recipe, Bata Macher Jhal is another astounding preparation involving bata fish, after Aam Doi Bata which my mother cooks amazingly. The simple tomato based gravy infused with the nice fragrance of coriander leaves is a healthy concoction befitting to be had almost every day. It is an ideal curry for those days when we feel like having something tasty, yet light on stomach and quick in preparation, the best part of this dish requiring miniscule precooking arrangement.