Summer Siesta: Doi Posto Eelish for our Band of Hundred

Here’s what we had for lunch. Hilsa cooked in a light, cool, heady poppy base, tempered with a bit of yoghurt. The inspiration for dish came from the posto eelish that I earlier ate at Oh Calcutta‘s River water festival. And Nilakshi’s method for cooking the rohu based doi maachh.

Here’s my recipe for Doi Posto Eelish

Part 1: prep

• Smear six pieces of Hilsa with a touch of turmeric and salt.
• Shallow fry and set aside
• Make a paste of 50 to 75 g of posto/ khus khus/ poppy seeds, ditto whole mustard seeds, two tablespoons of curd, one teaspoon each of turmeric and salt, half a teaspoon each of sugar, coriander and cumin powder and a few coriander leaves. Use a food processor or a ‘Mixie’ as it used to be called here.
• Add the marinade to the fish in a micro wave cooking bowl. Let the fish soak in the marinade over 15 – 30 min

Part 2: Micro’d

• Cook the fish in marinade mix for two minutes.
• Switch off. Take out. Gently turn the fish pieces around. Put it back into the micro
• Two more minutes and you are done
• Add half a teaspoon of mustard oil on top before cooking if you want for that Bengali touch

Eat this with steamed rice. But only when you know that you can follow it with a nap. You can eat it with a bite of green chilly. Wicked. You could choose to not fry the fish and just steam it. I reckon that you will  need eight instead of four minutes then.

Both K and I loved the dish. Pushpa’s fish was fresh as usual. The paste was soothing and pleasant, very well flavoured. Ethereal. Danced gently in your mouth. As if swaying to soft, melodious Rabindra Sangeet.

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