Topse Maach Bhaja / Topse Maacher Fry

Topse Maach or Mango Fish is very popular in Bengal. It has several long, slender filaments below the pectoral fins. This fish of the Ganges is highly in demand. This fish comes during March to May during the mango season, hence it’s called the Mango Fish.

It’s know for fish fry / fish fritters , which is marinated, dipped in Gram flour batter and deep fried. It’s served for lunch, it’s an accompaniment with dal and it is served during occasions.

To Marinate the Mango Fish

Ingredients

500 grams Topse / Mango Fish cleaned

4 to 5 tbsp Ginger - Garlic - Green Chilli - Onion paste (1 small piece of Ginger, 6 Garlic Cloves, 3 Green Chillies and 1 small Onion)

1 tsp Red Chilli Powder

1/2 Turmeric powder

Salt to Taste

Juice of 1 small Lime

Method

Take the fish in a bowl and add all the ingredients and apply it well on the fish. Keep it aside and marinate it for an hour or 
more.

For the Topse Bhaja

Ingredients

Marinated Fish

1 cup Gram flour

2 tbsp Rice flour

1 tsp Poppy seeds

1/2 tsp Nigella seeds

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Method

Take a bowl, add gram flour, rice powder, poppy seeds, nigella seeds and salt. Mix the ingredients well. Now add the marinated juices of the fish and little water at a time to make a thick batter. Mix it well. Keep it aside for 5 minutes. Meanwhile take a wok or a pan, add oil and let it heat. Once the oil heats up, dip the fish in the batter one at a time and gently put it in the oil. Fry 3 to 4 fish at a time on a medium low flame. Fry it till crispy brown in colour. Remove the fish on a paper towel. Serve it hot with dal and rice.

Asian Style Steamed Pomfrets in Banana Leaves

This steamed pomfrets are healthy as no oil is added to the dish. I have used Asian herbs and spices for the paste. It gives a strong flavour and aroma to the dish. Serve this dish with hot steamed rice. 

For the Paste

Ingredients 

• 1 small Onion cut into pieces 
• 1 small piece of Ginger 
• 6 Garlic Cloves 
• 2 Red Dried Chillies 
• 2 Fresh Red Chillies or 1 tbsp Pickled Chillies 
• 1/4 cup Coriander Leaves chopped 
• 2 Lime Leaves 
• 1 Lemongrass stalk
• 1 tsp Shrimp paste
• Salt to taste 

Method 

Grind all the above ingredients into a paste.

For the Steamed Pomfrets 

Ingredients 

• 2 Whole Pomfrets cleaned, slit and marinated with salt 
• Ground paste
• 2 Banana Leaves cut into medium size pieces and washed
• String 

Method 

Apply the paste on the Pomfrets. Let it marinate for 30 minutes. Take 2 to 3 pieces of the banana leaves and arrange them. Place the pomfret along with the marination on the banana leaves and wrap the banana leaves from all the sides. Tie it with a string. Take a steamer. Place the packed pomfrets into the steamer and steam the pomfrets for 20 minutes. Before eating cut open the strings, open up the banana leaves and serve it hot with steamed rice. 

Chatpata Murgh

This a very easy dish to make. It can be made in many ways. Here is my style of making this dish. This dish is a dry dish and can be served with paratha or roti and salad. I have used coriander stem paste as it gives out a strong flavour of the coriander. You can use any spice masala instead of the curry powder. 

Ingredients 

8 Chicken Legs

1 Onion coarsely ground

3 tbsp Ginger - Garlic - Chilli paste ( 1 small piece of ginger, 6 garlic cloves and 4 green chillies)

2 tbsp Coriander stem paste 

Few Coriander leaves chopped for garnishing 

4 tbsp Curd 

Salt to taste 

1/2 tsp Turmeric powder 

1 tbsp Curry powder 

1/2 cup Mustard Oil 

Method 

Add salt, turmeric powder, curry powder, ginger - garlic - chilli paste, coriander stem paste, curd and 2 tbsp of oil to the chicken legs. Rub the ingredients well to the chicken legs. Let it marinate for 2 to 5 hours. Take a wok, add the remaining oil and let it heat. Add the marinated chicken legs. Stir, cover and let it slow cook until the chicken legs are tender. Garnish it with coriander leaves. Serve it with paratha or roti and salad. 

Sticky Pork Belly

This piece of pork belly had been in my freezer for some time now. Even though I love pork, but I  don't cook it frequently in my house. I wanted to make crispy pork belly, but I found that the recipe was a bit lengthy, since my husband wanted to have fried rice, I thought this easy recipe was ideal to go with the fried rice. 

Pork belly is very popular and it’s a delicacy in many parts of the world. 

Here I have cooked Chinese style Sticky Pork Belly using star anise.  It’s very easy to make and extremely delicious. I love the sweet taste in it and the flavour of star anise. 

I followed kitchen Sanctuary's recipe... But I have made few changes in the recipe. 

For the Sticky Sauce

Ingredients 

2 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce 

2 tbsp Rice Wine (Optional) 

1 tsp Garlic minced 

1/2 tsp Ginger minced

1 tbsp Green Chilli minced 

Salt to taste

2 tbsp Brown Sugar

1 tbsp Honey 

2 tbsp Oil

Method 

Mix all the above ingredients together in a bowl and keep it aside. 

To make the Sticky Pork Belly

Ingredients 

500 grams Pork Belly cut into pieces 

1 Star Anise

4 to 5 sliced Ginger

4 to 5 whole Garlic crushed

1 stem of Spring Onion cut into 2 inch’s and then cut into thin slices lengthwise 

Salt to taste 

1 tbsp Brown Sugar

1 cup Vegetable stock or Chicken stock

Sticky Sauce

2 tbsp Oil 

Method 

Take a wok and add  oil, add the Pork pieces and stir it on high flame for a minute. Add the brown sugar and salt. Stir it for another minute. Remove the Pork pieces. In the same wok add the stock, ginger, garlic and star anise, let the stock come to a boil. Add the Pork Belly pieces. Cover and let it slow cook till the liquid has evaporated completely. Continue to stir the Pork belly for a minute. Add the sticky sauce, stir and cook it till the sauce has coated well on the Pork pieces. Garnish with spring onions and few red chilli slices. Serve with fried rice or enjoy as a starter. 

Punti Maccher Chorchori

I had a Bengali lady who worked for me for many years. Some time she would share her village stories with me. They did not have bathrooms at their place in the village so they all had to bathe in the river. On the way to the river they had to cross small streams. They use to carry gamcha (that is a cloth to wipe the body after bath). As they lack money... while on the way back home the village ladies usually use their gamcha to catch small varieties of fishes from the streams. One of the fish is called Punti Maach. They are called the swamp barb or chola barb or Puntius chola, in English. They are tropical freshwater fish. They are mainly found in streams, rivers, swamps and  shallow water. Since my maid lacked money, normally they would cook this small fish with potatoes and onions, either season with panch phoran and make jhal (spicy gravy) or season with nigella seeds to make Chorchori adding some vegetables of the season which grew in the nearby fields. Another dish which is made is Punti Maacher tak. The dishes were  served with hot steaming boiled rice.

I found this fish being sold by a local fisher woman after a very long time which was caught from the nearby river. It was a task cleaning this fish, but the end result was delicious.

Ingredients

* 500gm Punti fish cleaned and marinated with 1 tsp Turmeric powder and Salt

* 1 big size Onion chopped

* 3 big size Potatoes cut into wedges

* 1 big size Tomato cut into wedges

* 250 grams medium size Brinjal cut into wedges

* 4 Green Chillies slit

* Few Coriander leaves chopped for garnishing (optional)

* 1 tsp Ginger paste

* 1 tbsp Mustard paste

* 1 tsp Cumin powder

* 1 tsp Turmeric powder

* 1 tsp Chilli powder

* Salt to taste

* 1 tsp Nigella seeds

* 1/2 cup + 1/2 tsp Mustard Oil

Method

Take a wok, add 1/2 cup oil. Fry the punti maach in batches till golden brown in colour. Remove and keep it aside. In the the same oil add the nigella seeds and let it crackle. Add the  green chillies, onion, potatoes, brinjal and tomatoes. Stir fry the vegetables for 2 minutes. Add the salt, turmeric, cumin powder, chilli powder, ginger and mustard paste. Stir and cook for 2 minutes. Add 3/4 cup of water, stir and cover the wok. Let it cook on medium heat until the vegetables are tender and the gravy has almost dried up. Open the lid and check the vegetables. Add the puti mach and continue to cook for a minute. Drizzle with 1/2 tsp of Mustard Oil. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with steamed rice.