Mustard is a very versatile ingredient. It can make your recipes explode with flavour and also make the rather bland dinner enjoyable, in the form of a sauce or a dip. Mustard is also a popular ingredient in Bengali cuisine. Especially when eaten with fish. We put mustard in fish currys, steamed, baked and wrapped in banana leaves. Fish wrapped in banana leaf, or paturi as we call it in Bengali, is very popular in bengali cuisine but, banana leaves or other leaves big enough to cook fish in are not available in the UK. Neither is mustard oil which is banned by the EU. So, I decided to create my own version of fish parcels with mustard. Although this recipe is inspired by different cuisines, namely Bengali and French, the final recipe is completely original and was created for the Maille Culinary Challenge.

It all started when I was offered two products from Maille’s shelves to create an original recipe for their culinary challenge. The products I used were Maille – Moutarde Ail et Citron, which is mustard with garlic and lemon, you cannot go wrong with that combination, and Maille’s Dijon mustard. So armed with the trusty mustard I set off to experiment.

Fish Maille ingredients:

Dijon Originale and Maille Ail et Citron
Dijon Originale and Maille Ail et Citron

1. Dijon mustard 3 tablespoons

2. Maille – Moutarde Ail et Citron 3 teaspoons

4. One medium onion finely chopped

5. 350 grams boneless cod

6. 350 grams boneless trout

7. 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

8. 50 ml coconut cream not milk

9. half a teaspoon ground turmeric

10. salt to taste

12. Baking parchment – 1 large square to fold your fish in

13. Optional but good flavours, coriander leaves and green chillies

Fish Maille preparation

Put  the mustard, oil, coconut cream and spices in a bowl and make a smooth paste. If you like heat add the chopped green chillies as well and half of the chopped onions.

Mustard Paste
Mustard Paste

 

Lay out the baking parchment on a tray, then dip each piece of fish in the paste and cover thoroughly. Next, place all the fish in the middle of the parchment. I would suggest not more than four pieces per parcel. Pour the remaining mustard paste over the fish.

Before it all goes into the parcel
Before it all goes into the parcel

 

The folding is a bit tricky, as at this point there is a lot of runny liquid, so lift the sides of the baking parchment and bring it together at the top. Then slowly roll it down to one side and fold the ends neatly under the fish.

DSCN4594

 

Then put the parcel in the oven on a baking tray or dish like I did for  20 to 25 minutes at 200 degrees centigrade. You will know your fish is cooked, when the baking parchment starts browning like in the picture above.

So, while the fish is cooking lets discuss a few more possibilities of cooking the fish with the same ingredients and which one I think tastes the best.

When I put my fish in the parcel, I still had four more pieces left, so instead of using all the mustard paste for another parcel I put the remaining fish and mustard paste in a baking dish with some finely chopped onions. It is marvellous how the same ingredients cooked differently  in the same oven tastes different.

The baked fish in mustard sauce
The baked fish in mustard sauce

Although this tasted marvellous as well, adding coriander to the parcel version, which is essentially a steamed version, is not recommended, as this tends to make the sauce more watery. I added half the onions to the mustard paste for flavour and then halved the paste for each method. So, one quarter of a medium onion went into each version. In the baked method, however, adding more onion and coriander is good because it adds more fluid and leaves something like a sauce behind.

So, use the coriander and onions as a garnish instead. I deep fried half the onions into crisp fried sweet strings and garnished the fish with it as shown below.

DSCN4486

 

The baked fish: note how the sauce is thinner and less creamier than the steamed version. Although they are both lovely to taste!
The baked fish: note how the sauce is thinner and less creamier than the steamed version. Although they are both lovely to taste!
Fish Maille best eaten with fragrant basmati rice as served here
Fish Maille (what came out of the parcel) best eaten with fragrant basmati rice as served here
Fish Maille in all its glory with a perfect creamy coconut cream and mustard sauce
Fish Maille in all its glory with a perfect creamy coconut cream and mustard sauce

Reasons why  I decided to call it Fish Maille:

I used two kinds of fish in this recipe, cod and trout, although the finished product does not make it very evident but, food is also about taste and textures. And the melee of flavours, textures created with the Maille mustard makes it a Fish Maille.

This recipe was created as an entry to the Maille Culinary Challenge and I was provided with the Ail et Citron, my chosen ingredient, to create a recipe for the challenge.

Written by Amrita Dasgupta - Visit my blog for more food and travel stories
I 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.