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| The doi shorshe begun ilish that I made the other day and which I paired with red rice |
Ilish. A love story
I guess no one will take me seriously as a food blogger, who is Bengali, if I do not publish at least one post on ilish (hilsa) during this season. Ilish is the fish most loved by Bengalis and the monsoons are when ilish is said to be at its tastiest.
So let me not disappoint you and tell you instead about a cheat’s doi shorshe ilish that I made recently after I scored some excellent ilish in the fish markets of Mumbai. Doi shorshe literally translates into curd and mustard paste. Unlike in the west coast of India, in the east we do not mind mixing dairy with fish!
The story of that day ended in Kolkata though with a boneless ilish that I had later that night after flew off to the city on work.
The worry is that the Bengali love for ilish might one day make the fish extinct just as could be the case with pomfret someday in Mumbai.
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| That’s Sangeeta at the back cutting the ilish in the Khar fish market while Poonam in the front cuts the kaatla that I had bought. Koli ladies from Mumbai. Their mom, Hira Bai (in yellow) is descaling the tyangra that I bought |
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| Ilish maachh bhaaja, jheenge posto, bhaat |
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| Ilish maacher mudo diya lau and baajra roti |
Taking liberties with ilish in Mumbai
Now here’s my hack. I added kasundi, the spicy and pungent Bengali mustard sauce, to the dahi instead of adding in freshly ground mustard. It worked well and I loved the nuanced flavour palette that it gave to the dish.
Doi shorshe begun ilish
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| Doi shorshe ilish with begun |
Ingredients: 4 slices of hilsa, 2 green chillies, 100 g dahi, 1 tablespoon kasundi, 1 tablespoon mustard oil, 1 teaspoon each of turmeric, red chilli powders and salt, fresh coriander leaves
Cook:
1. Smear the sliced aubergine in turmeric, salt and red chilli powder and fry it in mustard oil till it is evenly cooked
2. Remove the aubergine pieces from the pan. Add a bit more of mustard oil to the pan and a split green chilli or two and then gently shallow fry the fish in the pan. Don’t make it too crisp. You don’t want to dry out the fish.
3. Once the fish is fried, add the aubergine to the pan.
4. Then add in 100 g of dahi which you have whisked first with a spoon of kasundi (the Bengali mustard sauce) and salt, and then turn off the gas immediately. The sauce might split otherwise
5. Gently try to turn the fish pieces around so that the sauce covers it evenly and you are ready to eat
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| Doi shorshe begun ilish with red rice |
Making no bones about being pampered in Kolkata
I reached Kolkata and checked into the Peerless Inn Hotel and then went to Aaheli, their Bengali fine dining restaurant which has just completed 25 years, where I was invited for dinner.
Boneless ilish is a rare indulgence of course as a lot of fish is required and this is expensive and depletes the stock of fish. Thankfully most red blooded Bengalis wouldn’t always need this though most premium restaurants and clubs in Kolkata offer it now.
I was always bit of a spoilt kid I admit and still am. Which is why, when I was a kid, my mother would remove the bones of the fish (kaanta baachha) before feeding me.
At times it is fun to be pampered!
I posted the pictures of the three of us as soon as I could as I knew that these are the pictures that many on my social media pages look forward to as much as I do when I go to Kolkata and I wanted to thank them all for their warm wishes.
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| Boneless ilish, ilsih chop, pui shaak with ilish mudo and veg thali at Aaheli |
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| Boneless ilish in Aaheli |
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| Well looked after in Aaheli |
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| With chef Hafeez of Aaheli |
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| Happy at Aaheli |
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| The chicken curry and malpua made by didu with ruti and kumro (oumpkin) fry made by her cook Anjali |
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| With mom and didu who are both quite selfie friendly by now |
Appendix: Here’s a video that I did during my meal at Aaheli.
Have you subscribed to my YouTube channel, Finely Chopped by Kalyan Karmakar , yet? Please do if you want to see casual, slice of life self shot videos from when I go out to eat. Pamper me, if I might say so, and subscribe to the channel please.
