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Rawas chilli fish |
I am so happy with today’s lunch that I thought I will pop in and tell you about it here.
I made chilli fish with the two rawas (Indian salmon) steaks left in the fridge. The fish tasted like butter, even though I had purchased it more than a week back from Poonam of the Khar station fish market who comes over and delivers fish these days in Bandra.
The inspiration for the chilli fish came from what we would eat in Indian Chinese restaurants such as Tasty at Kolkata’s College Street in the 90s. Back then betki was the fish of choice for making Chinese or continental preps in Kolkata. When I moved to Mumbai in the late 90s, I learnt that they used rawas for the same here. A fish I was unfamiliar with but have learnt since is called gurjali in Bengali. Poonam tells me that there is an ‘original rawas’ and a fake one. The former is more expensive and what doctors recommend as being good for the heart. That is what we buy. She fillets it for us.
I wonder if the rawas used back in the day here was the non ‘original’ one. Possibly.
Basa rules in both cities today and that is sad.
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One dish meal for the missus |
Kainaz is the fish lover in the family and I loved to buy and cook fish for her. Then I started buying fish such as rawas, bangda (Indian mackerel) and Indian tuna for myself too as recommended by my doctors and have learnt to enjoy them over time. The fish that is, though I am fond of my docs.
Many of my fellow Bengalis do not like seawater fish as they (the Bongs) are wedded to freshwater fish. No such problems for me. Some benefits of not being a fish lover from birth!
Here’s how I cooked the chilli fish today:
- I heated a tablespoon of vegetable oil on a high heat
- Then added a tablespoon of black bean chilli oil
- Then cubed red onion and once they were translucent, sliced green capsicum
- Then the two boneless rawas steaks. The original chilli fish of Kolkata would consist of smaller pieces and would be more deep fried and might have a batter coating. Two tips given to me by chef Thomas Zacharias of the Bombay Canteen once when my salmon had disintegrated in a pan – wipe the fish dry before putting it in the pan and cook on high heat – have held me in good stead since then and the fish held its shape till the end. The prevalent use of basa upsets chef Thomas no end and he is a big advocate of using local fish.
- I gently turned the fish over after adding a teaspoon of dark soya sauce for seasoning.
- I sprinkled a bit of crushed black pepper and added a chopped chilli before turning the hob off and added some sesame seeds to the pan too.
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Comfort food for any Bengali. Bhaat maach. |