The monsoon here, and the humidity rising. All those days when it doesn’t rain in those tropical areas, I presume it is absolutely painful to live. More so when it comes to have food. Living in the heart of Kolkata for a long, long time, I understand the feelings of those people now in the mid of June. In those humid weathers you don’t even feel like eating anything spicy and for those the ladies in the kitchen its painstaking to stand and cook for hours together.
So, here I am with a little recipe of my own to beat the heat in the kitchen as well as at the dining table. You can prepare this with any kind of fish that is fresh and is not stinking much. You can get the taste of it with any fleshy fish, better if it is fresh water fishes.
When I was young and used to go to school I would call this fish preparation as “Kara kari jhol”(Bengali for snatch it curry), because my mom used to cook it so well that it felt like the best thing in the world, and still it remains one of my favorite dishes.
Ingredients:
Fish (any fresh water fleshy fish): 200gms
Black cumin (Kalo Jeera): 1 teaspoon
Mustard oil (Sarser tel): 2 tablespoon
Turmeric powder (Halud Guro): 1 teaspoon
Green chilli (Kacha Lanka): 2 / 3 pieces
Salt to taste
Water
Preparation:
- De-scale and wash the fishes well, add ½ teaspoon of turmeric powder and 1 teaspoon of salt to the fish and mix them well.
- Heat oil in a wok and fry the fishes. Don’t over fry, Take them out of the flame just after little frying.
- Add black cumin to the oil in which you have fried the fishes. Add turmeric powder, green chilli, salt and 2 cups of water.
- Let it boil for 2 minutes, add the fried fishes and cook for some more time, till the water takes up the yellowish color.
- Serve with rice and enjoy this non-spicy fish preparation in the humid weather of this summer.
Addendum:
Those of you who still don’t care about that extra fat on your tummy can add two or three pieces of potato to the preparation also.
Cut the potato like those of French fries. Fry it and keep separately. Add the potato soon after you add water to the wok. When the potatoes are almost cooked add the fried fishes to it.
