In most species of fish, when the fish bears eggs the taste of its flesh reduces, excepting for hilsa. Hilsa’s taste gets enhanced when it bears egg. There is a reason behind this. Hilsa comes to the sweet water, that is, it comes up to the river during monsoon, the egg laying season. The sweet water happens to have an effect on the taste and so the catch from the river is world renowned. Now, coming back to the other fishes; rohu looses its taste during the laying season. Anyways the preparations made out of the eggs are ecstatic.
Fish egg, what we generally call is not only the eggs themselves but it also contains parts of the matured ovaries of the fish, and is called roe. Roe is prepared in different ways in different parts of the world. It is widely used in Asia and Europe. While we Indians mainly fry the roe, people from Japan, Korea and parts of Asia like to have it raw as a side dish with rice. Roe is widely used as a topping over sushi. Roe is also seasoned with salt, lemon, onions, olive oils and pepper powder. In Greece it’s used as a dip. While roe from shrimp, cod, salmon, sea urchin, and many other kinds of fishes are used in preparation, I have used roe from rohu for this preparation.
Ingredients:
Rohu roe (Rui macher dim): 100gms, properly cleaned
Wheat Flour (Maida): 1 tablespoon
Onion (Peyaj): 1 medium size
Green chilies (Kancha lanka): 2
Mustard oil (Sarser tel): 1 teaspoon
Rice (Chal): 1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder (Halud guro): ½ teaspoon
Sunflower oil (Sada tel): for deep frying
Preparation:
- Chop the onions finely and mix with the mustard oil, keep for 5 minutes for the onions to soften
- Add all the ingredients excepting the sunflower oil to the softened onions and mix well. If required add little more flour to make the mixture firm
- Make small flattened balls of the mixture
- Heat oil in a wok or frying pan and deep fry the balls till cooked properly. Try putting a fork through the balls; if it comes out clean, the vada is fried.
- Take out of flame and place on a kitchen paper to soak out the excess oil
- Serve with tomato sauce and onions or also use it as an accompaniment with rice and dal.
My note: Macher dimer vada tastes best when consumed hot, so prepare it just before eating.
Sending this recipe to Indrani of Appyayan for hosting the first event on her blog, Spotlight: Fish.
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Diyas for sale at a street side stall in Gariahat market, Kolkata
Getting the diyas ready- part I
Getting the diyas ready- part II
For the last couple of days I had been doing all these. Visiting my native was one of the main dos in the list. I visited Kolkata, my hometown. As you all feel when you go back home after a long long time I felt the same. My mom, my aunts and everybody in there was ready to welcome me with my favorite platters. For one whole week I had been eating and eating with of course learning these dishes.
Diyas ready to light
Rangoli with pista shell lamps at my Bangalore flat
As I was not able to celebrate Diwali with my family, I managed to have the taste of the celebration a few days before the day. Me and my sister went out shopping for the terracotta diyas and painted them with acrylic paints, it was so much fun.
Talking about food I had a pretty good share of the typical home-made dishes and I’ll be putting up one in each of my following posts starting from today with Daler Vada. Daler vada is a typical Bengali starter and also a side dish with rice and dal.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
Motor Dal powder: 100 gms
Onions (Peyaj): 3 medium sizes, juliened
Green chilli (Kacha Lanka): 4, cut into small ringlets
Turmeric powder (Halud Guro): 1 teaspoon
Mustard oil (Sarser tel): 1 tablespoon and extra for deep frying
Salt to taste
Preparation:
- Take the onions in a bowl and pour in one tablespoon of oil and soak in the onions.
- Add the other ingredients to the onions.
- Pour in enough matter to make a soft dough and keep for half an hour.
- Heat oil in a pan and fry the dough in small balls.
- Serve with sauce as starter or with rice and dal as a great side dish.
Daler Vada with tomato sauce
Hope you had a great Diwali. Stay in touch for more updates on my Kolkata trip.
Happy Cooking and Happy Eating.
This recipe goes to my dear friend Priti’s blog event Festive Food: Diwali Celebration
Also sending the recipe to JFI – Nov’08 – Festival Diwali hosted by Srivalli.
What better than some pakoras with a little chit chatting in parties, and this is a great easy to make snack for any party, so sending my recipe to WYF: Party Food event announcement hosted by Simple Indian Food- An Easy Cooking Blog.
Priya has also got a little present for me this Diwali, check my awards page for more details.
Whenever my mom gets tired of living in the kitchen, she tries out all possible shortcuts for dinner. “Dimer vada” is also one of her shortcuts too. It’s so easy to cook, yet it’s the so tasty. I just love the smell of it from the kitchen. So today I thought of making that myself with the special eggs from the market.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
Potato (Aalu): 4 or 5 medium size
Egg (Dim): 3
Onion (Peyaj): 1 small
Green chilli (Kacha Lanka): 2
Turmeric powder (Halud guro): ½ teaspoon
Sunflower Oil: 1 tablespoon
Salt to taste
Preparation:
- Boil the potatoes.
- Slice the onion in very small square pieces
- Mash the potatoes and add the beaten eggs to it.
- Throw in the onions, chilli, turmeric pwder and salt.
- Heat oil in a frying pan.
- As the oil gets heated, make small discs out of your batter and fry.
- Serve as a wonderful starter with tomato sauce or just have it as a side dish with dal on your dinner table.
Enjoy the great egg pakora. Catch you soon, till then happy cooking and happy eating.
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