The unprecedented drive for making big money is seen all over in the cities of India, but you can find the sort of peace that India was known for in the provincial India. There is decay, corruption and general impoverishment but some of the old world is still intact in the stone paved streets and the rituals of antiquity.
There is a possibility to find peace in this home - lush greenery of the plains that gets weathered with harsh summers and compensating monsoons. Here in this blog, I have made an attempt to share the feeling of this love by talking about the food from eastern part of the provincial India.
Cilantro and purvanchal
I must being with talking about coriander or cilantro - known as "dhania" in Hindi - which is an ingredient immensely used in the purvanchal cooking. It would appear in many forms - most times powdered but also used in chopped minced for garnishing or otherwise.
Personal tastes do vary, but somehow cilantro is enjoyed very much in almost everything from purvanchal cuisine.
The Coriander based fish curry
The preparation of fish curry that I am used to is one which uses a lot of cilantro. With the other prime ingredient being garlic this dish is to be cooked a mile away from any serious Brahmin or Jain.
The recipe interestingly enough is very much influenced by Bengali cuisine. I say that because mustard is rarely used with so much excess in purvanchal.
Ingredients
Fish - Rohu, Bacha or other freshwater fish
Garlic - one whole (or 12 cloves)
Mustard - 4 teaspoons
Whole coriander - as much in volume as the garlic
badi-ilayachi/cardamom - half
Ponforon - optional (according to taste)
khatai/dried-mango -optional - 5-8 g
Notice that there is no ginger in this preparation. Ginger fused fish is something different and we may cover that at a later point.
Choosing the fish
The choice of fish really varies across purvanchal. Seafood is rarely eaten - even in Bengal where fish is the staple food. Salmon, tuna are ruled out. Most often you would find Rohu, Bacha or very rarely Hilsa. Hilsa might be your favorite, but I have mostly used the Rohu (Labeo Rohita) for this recipe and would recommend that.
Mixing spices
The first step is the mixture of spices. The traditional way of mixing with sil-batta (grinding stone) is really the best. You are very welcome to use a blender if you want to save effort and time, but sil-batta is not recommended for no reason. Take garlic (one whole), 1/2 cardamon (black), 20g mustard and khatai. Grind them all on the stone or otherwise. If you can use coriander seeds grind them together (quantity of 20g) as well.
Frying the fish
After you have this paste, you can start pan-frying the fish in very little oil. Any oil is OK, unless you really love mustard oil and would love to use that. Smear the fish in turmeric and salt before frying. Meanwhile heat some oil in a kadhai (wok) and start cooking the spice. This should give you idea of what the final result would taste like. The smell tells a lot about food in Indian cuisine. If you have some experience with spices feel free to adjust the content. A very popular "adjustment" is one with panchforon (which like the art of fish-eating itself comes from Bengali cuisine, and comprises of saunf/anise, jeera/cumin, proshto/sunflower-seeds, methi/fenugreek and mustard in equal proportions).
Final touches
After you've fried the paste for 5 mins, add some water and then add fish that is already pan fried. Cook on slow heat for 10 mins, then add water and cover the mixture after adding more water. You should let this cook for 20 mins or so, while the fish becomes tender.
The fish curry is best eaten with rice. Personally I like it more with the chapatis. This is one of the spiciest preparations in purvanchal. Fish is not eaten by everyone in purvanchal. Yet I think it summarizes the basic features of the purvanchal cuisine that are worth mentioning in the first post of this blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment