14 October 2012

Shorisha Elish with touri & mango

This is a gorgeous curry made by Ms. Tapashe Podder, for the Grandma's Recipes competition recently at Mumtaz Mahal Restaurant. She has kindly allowed me to share the recipe on my blog. Notes below outline some of the tricky ingredients. This is a verbatim copy of Ms Tapashe's Grandmother's recipe, so any instructions that seem a little ambiguous have also been clarified below.

Ingredients:

Hilsa fish= 6 pieces ①
Mustard seed paste= 1 tbsp
Touri paste= made of 2 big touris ②
Mango boiled= 2 tsp ③
Green chilli= 5-6 pieces
Sliced onions= 6-7 medim onion
Turmeric powder= 1 tsp
Red chilli powder= 1 tsp
Cumin powder= 1 tsp
Coriander powder= 1 tsp
Salt to taste 
Oil= 1 cup

Method:


1.Marinate the fish with turmeric powder and salt.
2.In a pan, take 1 cup of oil. When the oil gets hot, put the sliced onions, fry it and keep some fried onions aside.④
3.Keep stirring the rest of the onions until they become brown. Add a little water and 1/2 tbsp mustard seed paste. Put all the ingredients one by one except touri paste.
4.Stir and mix well. After half-frying the masala, add the touri paste. Then add the rest of the mustard seed paste and boiled mango little by little. Cover and simmer.
5.After some time ⑤ add the fish pieces . Mix the fish with the masala properly. When the oil comes out ⑥. Take the pot off the stove and sprinkle the kept aside onions .

Notes:

② Ridge gourd (or touri) - pictured here, a little like a cross between a turnip and a cucumber. To make into a paste, simply peel and crush the touri in a blender or large mortar and pestle.

Hilsa fish, also called ilish/elish, is a very soft white fleshed fish fairly easily found in the UAE, and all through the middle east and much of Asia. Unfortunately it is overfished. It was prepared in cutlets for this dish, but could be replaced with fish fillets - but take care not to overcook. Maybe try with Faskar or Pink Eared Emperor.

③ Boiled mango can be replaced with mango powder, or at a far stretch, sugar. 

④Yes, that is quite a bit of oil. Presented, the dish was topped with crispy fried onions, and did appear a little oily underneath, but not as much as I would expect a 1-cup oil dish to be. I would suggest that the recipe should read:
2.In a pan, take 1 cup of oil. When the oil gets hot, put the sliced onions, fry them and keep some fried onions aside once softened. 
3.Keep stirring the rest of the onions until they become brown. Then remove and replace with softened onions, retaining a little oil. Add a little water and 1/2 tbsp mustard seed paste.

⑤ I would assume the "some time" referred to in step 5 is about 20 minutes - enough time to integrate spices and cook the raw flavour from the touri.

⑥ The fish was cooked for about 5-10 minutes.


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