Pabda machh(Butter Catfish) is a fish that Bengalis love. I was so excited to see it in a Bangladeshi store here in Sunnyvale, California. A friend of mine suggested me to visit the store to check the variety of fishes they have, and I still thank him for the life changing suggestion he gave me.
That day I stumbled upon the authentic Bong myself! A Bengali who starved for authentic sweet water fishes for months, lands into a store with almost everything that he can think of, he is no lesser than a kid in a toy store who wants to buy everything, literally EVERYTHING! And yes I ended up buying Pabda, Rohu, Ilish, Puti. And when I got home I was not able to decide which one to start with again like a kid in Disneyland, not able to decide where to start from. (Well this is not just about kids, when me and my wife were in Disneyland, we were also so muddled about where to start from. We wanted to enjoy everything at the very same time.)
And that week, was a seafood festival at our home. My wife who is not very fond of fish had no other option but to start loving fish.
Well this is how I started with those fishes. Pabda machher jhal the first day.
Ingredients:
- Pabda maach - 3
- Onion - 1 large finely chopped or grated, I used grated.
- Tomato - 1 medium sized, finely chopped
- Green chili - 4 slit
- Ginger - ½ inch, grated or paste
- Green coriander - 2 tsp finely chopped
- Kalojeera/Kalonji - 1 tsp
- Tejpata - 1
- Salt - to taste
- Mustard Oil - 3 Tbsp
- Chili powder - 1 tsp
- Turmeric powder - ½ tsp
- Jeera(cumin) powder - ½ tsp
1. Smear the fishes with half tsp turmeric powder and salt and keep them aside for 15 minutes.
2. Heat 2 Tbsp mustard oil in a non stick pan/wok till smoke comes out. Now put the fishes in and fry them until they are done from each side. Remove them from pan.
3. Add the remaining oil in pan and heat. Temper with kalojeera. Add tejpata.
4. Add the slit green chilies.
5. Add onion paste and saute for 5 mins.
6. Add the tomato paste and saute till tomatoes are cooked and mushy.
7. Add ginger paste, chili powder, turmeric powder, jeera powder and saute until oil separates.
8. Add one cup water. Add salt to taste and cover the pan and simmer until the gravy comes to a boil.
9. Add fried fishes and chopped coriander and simmer for another few minutes.
10. Serve with hot rice.
In my case the rice was already served, waiting for the fish to be placed in the plate. And oh yes, the drool splash was really hard to control. :-)
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