Fish in coconut milk and mustard gravy
Fish is one of the staples at the Bengali’s table. Chicken and mutton are delicacies for special occasions. Although, chicken has become quite popular with the younger generations, fish hasn’t lost its standing completely. In a previous recipe, Mustard Plaice , I’ve already mentioned the popularity of using mustard with fish. In this recipe, I will be using another favourite from the Bengali’s kitchen, Coconut milk. The sweetness of the coconut tempers the eye-watering strength of the mustard. With the help of modern food preservation techniques, this is one of the simplest dishes to make. My mustard comes out of a jar and the coconut milk out of a can. Opening the can was quite difficult!
Ingredients:
- Any white fish (I’ve used 750 grams of River Cobbler. Cod and Haddock will do quite well too.)
- One large onion (the size of the onion depends on the amount of fish.)
- A handful of coriander
- A teaspoon full of ginger paste or freshly grated
- 100 ml of coconut milk
- Mustard powder, or paste, or a sauce (avoid sauces which have corn flour added to them)
- A teaspoon of mustard seeds
- Green chilli sliced and seeded
- 1 dried red chilli
- A few tablespoons of any cooking oil (As mustard oil has been declared unfit for consumption by the EU, you probably shouldn’t use it. But if you are from a country that still consumes mustard oil, please feel free to heat it to smoking point before cooking with it.)
Preparation and cooking time 30 minutes
Lightly fry the fish till it loses its pinkness and keep aside. Next, fry the onions, dried red chilli and the mustard seeds. When you start getting a nutty flavour add the ginger and stir around to avoid it sticking. Mix the coconut milk and the mustard paste and pour it in the pan. Stir it well, add the fish and let it simmer. Garnish with the green chilli and coriander leaves. You will end up with a thick gravy, to lighten it add some warm water. However, the thicker the gravy the stronger it will taste.
Serving suggestions: Serve with freshly steamed Basmati rice or a rice pilaf.
Written by Amrita Dasgupta - Visit my blog for more food and travel storiesI love to travel, discover new things, experience new cultures and then I get back home and experiment with the new food and recipes I discovered on my travels. My blog is about all those life experiences. If you’ve enjoyed this post, keep in touch with Drifting Traveller on Twitter and Facebook or by adding my blog to your RSS feed. Follow my blog with Bloglovin or Networked Blogs! If you really like reading the Drifting Traveller why not share it with people you know who'd like to read it too.
My mother would’ve added a dash of fenugreek paste and omitted the muastard seed temper (gota shorshe phoron). Coriander, where I come from, is added in profusion in the final minute – make a coarse paste of coriander leaves and at least one green chili… I find that you have tagged on to my secular and catholic web log; no objection by any means! But, may I ask, to what do I get this honour?
Thank you for the recipe, I will try it. My recipe was tailored to suit the tastes of my non-Indian friends. They find the most innocuous things spicy but not mustard! I found your blog very interesting because I grew up in Sahaganj as my father worked there.
What is your dad’s name? I’ve been there so long that I know all of them from my time, or so I think.
You probably know my father. Abhijit Dasgupta.
Abhijit had joined Sahaganj rather late in my career as an engineer in the industrial products division. The then division head used to hate my guts. And I was in the thick of things that were patently not my cup of tea if only I could help. We’ve met again, thanks to Mark Zuckerman, but he doesn’t reply to my pokes. I bet you got on to my blog site through the FB. Abhijit is holidaying in Bhuvaneswar, I learn from his postings. That means you live alone and abroad, studying or working, married or single like both my daughters?
Baba is in Bhubaneswar with KIIT. When the factory closed, one more time in 2001, he had to spend the night locked in the factory. After that experience he gave up on industry and became a professor instead! I think he hasn’t discovered how to poke back yet. Baba did mention that you blog and share it on FB, I quite liked reading them. I’m married and living in London. I used to know Hiya as a kid, whereabouts is she now?
Hia did her masters (Sociology) and MPhil (child Sociology) from JNU and got a PhD from from Freiburg University (Germany) (child Sociology again) mid-last year. Since October she joined Presidency University as an assistant professor and lives with us in Calcutta. She hasn’t married and doesn’t show any interest till date. Nor has Dulali, her didi, who works for the Hindustan Times, Delhi.
That’s wonderful! Hia did her BA from Presidency didn’t she? How does she like teaching at her alma mater?although, politics at Presidency is at its dirtiest best at the moment! Student politics sounds like child’s play now.