Kasundi / Kashundi Maachh

Fish cooked in Kashundi (A Mustard based sauce unique to Bengal)

Quick, Easy & Delicious. Thats what Kashundi/Kasundi Maachh (Bhetki/Basa or for that matter any soft fish) is.

Ingredients 

Bhetki / Basa fillets - 500-750gm

Ginger-Garlic paste (I use homemade) - 1.5 tbspn

Chili flakes / chili powder - depends on heat tolerance

Salt

Crushed Black pepper

Procedure :

1. Bhetki/Basa fillets marinated in ginger, garlic paste, salt, pepper, chilli flakes/chilli powder and generous helping of Kashundi/Kasundi for 1/2 - 1 hr.

2. Drizzle 2-3 tbsp of Mustard Oil to the marinated fish. (This may be eliminated or just a minimum quantity of oil may be used). Mix well and place them evenly in a flat bottomed microwaveable glass container

Slit some green chilies and place them on the 'bed' of fish. 

Microwave on Power 80 for 8-10minutes.

Keep it within the oven for 2-3 minutes. 

Garnish with freshly chopped Coriander leaves.  

Tastes delicious with steamed rice.

Cooking couldnt be faster or easier!!

Grilled masala coated Whole Bhetki with Mashed Potato and Vegetables

A recipe I'd used a number of times and it was super simple and the end result was super delicious. The Source : Preeoccupied's Masala Salmon.

However instead of Salmon, I had used Bhetki / Basa in the past. This time I had a whole Bhetki fish, deboned, sans the head and tail. Used it as a whole instead of making small sized fillets from it. 

Ingredients:

For the Fish:

Deboned Bhetki - approx 1 kg

onion - 1

plain curd - 3/4 cup 

fresh coriander - 3/4 cup 

lemon juice -2 tablespoon 

green chilies-3-4 

ginger - 2 teaspoon (grated)

garlic - 5-6 cloves (minced)

vegetable oil

Salt-to taste

For the mashed potatoes

Potatoes - 4 medium 

Butter

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Chili flakes

Garlic cloves

For the sauted vegetables:

I used mushrooms, babycorn, peas

Butter

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Procedure :

Fish :

1. Finely chop the onion and deep fry them till they turn red and crispy. Remove the onions from the oil and let it cool. Keep the oil aside.

2. In a blender, add the ginger, garlic, curd, green chilies, coriander, lemon juice, the fried onions, very little of the oil (from the onions) and salt. This blend is the marinade for your fish.

3. Apply a thick layer of this marinade on both sides of the fish. For basting, drizzle the remaining oil you used to fry the onions. 

4. Keep the fish marinated for about 1/2 hour.

5. Place the whole marinated fish on the baking tray and Grill it at around 170-180 deg C about 7-8 minutes on each side. 

Mashed Potatoes :

Boil, mash potatoes.

Fry the mashed potatoes in butter and add salt, freshly ground black pepper and chili flakes, till golden brown in colour

Remove from flame

In 2-3 tbsp of butter , fry garlic cloves till golden brown.

While serving using this butter+fried garlic as the dressing for the mashed potato

Vegetables :

Saute the vegetables in butter with a sprinkling of salt & freshly ground black pepper

Serve the grilled fish with the mashed potato drizzled with butter-fried garlic and sauted vegetables

Patrani Machhi...Parsi cousin of the Bengali Paturi

Fish fillet marinated in spices, wrapped in an envelop of Banana leaf and steamed or baked.

To a Bengali the spice would be predominantly Mustard paste while to a Parsi it would be a green chutney consisting of predominantly coriander leaves, pudina, coconut. 

The end result? Either a Bong Paturi or a Parsi Patrani Machchhi...both favourite, subtly flavoured fish delicacies of the respective communities.

Of course, while the Paturi is made of Bhetki or Hilsa, the Patrani Machchhi is made of Pomfret, Rawas, as far as I know.

The Bong me, this morning, wanted to try her hand at making her favourite paturi's Parsi cousin.

Internet came to my rescue and I followed this Parsi recipe from Devaki's Weave a Thousand Flavors. 

The changes I made due to availability/non-availability - For my Patrani Machchhi, I used Bhetki, freshly grated coconut, desi green chilies but it was sans pudina as I did not have the herb at home.

Ingredients : yielded approximately 24 pieces of fish

Bhetki fillet - approx 600 gms (since I had no plans of making patrani machchi, I had marinated the fish with ginger, pepper and salt)

** Dry grind spices: Jeera / cumin seeds - 1.5 tsp
Coriander seeds - 1.5 tsp ,
Fenugreek/Methi - 1/2 tsp ,
Mustard seeds - 1.5 tsp

Dry grind all the above ingredients in the coffee grinder to a fine powder. Add to the ingredients of coconut chutney (given below) to make the chutney.

Coconut Chutney: Grated coconut - 1 cup ( I used half a coconut),
Ginger - 1” piece,
peeled garlic - 3-4 cloves ,
Green chilies (depending on tolerance to heat) - 2, 

Kashmiri mirch powder - 1 tsp (not in original recipe)
fresh cilantro leaves - 1 cup (+ ¼ cup mint leaves - did not use),
sugar - 1 tsp ,
salt - 1-1/2 tsp ,
Dry roasted (instead of raw) peanuts - 1 tbs &
tamarind paste-2 tbs
**Dry ground spices from above,

1/2 cup water (more only if required)

4-6 inch wide pieces (approx square ) banana leaves , 24 nos ( I needed 3 medium sized banana leaves) to wrap fish
toothpicks

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F/175-180 deg C

2. Fish – Cut the fillet into approx.2"x3" sized pieces. Rubbed with salt  and pepper (not mentioned in original recipe) 

3. Prepared the Coconut chutney by blending all the ingredients in a grinder to make a thick pesto like fine paste. The mixture should be of thick consistency.
5. Marinade: Apply the chutney all over the fish on both sides. Marinate 4-5 hours. (I had time for only 1 hour marination)




Method:

1. Wash and dry the surface of the banana leaf . Apply oil on the surface of each leaf. Cut the banana leaf into approx. 4"x6" pieces 

2. Place each fish fillet in the center of a piece of banana leaf so the fish is parallel to the seams in the leaf. Cover generously with the marinade. 

3. Fold over on both sides and then fold over the ends ad seal with one/more tooth pick

4. Place the fish parcels on a baking tray. 'Bake' for 20 minutes in the preheated oven at 170-180 deg C.

5. Remove from the oven.

Serve hot with steamed rice.

Enjoy!

Baked Fish (Bhetki) on a bed of grated Cabbage

 Bhetki Fillets, juicy & succulent. The first thought which comes to mind is Fish Fry (the Bong way). But the past few days have been an overdose of Fish Fries and hence decided against it.

As necessity is the mother of ALL inventions or discoveries and in this case recipes, decided to put to use the only vegetable available at home and 'create' something new. Well..... was definitely skeptical as to how fish and cabbage would taste....So with apprehensions mounting regarding the outcome of the dish and how it would be received by my in-house trio (father & daughters) of food tasters/critics/consumers etc etc, I went ahead.

Ingredients :

Bhetki fillet - around 1.5 kgs which yielded about 12-15 boneless pieces

Vinegar / Lemon juice-1/2 cup

Ginger-garlic paste - 2 tbsp

Onion juice (optional)
Green chilli paste (optional)

Salt

Pepper - freshly ground

chilli flakes

coriander leaves - finely chopped

grated cheese- 1 cup

butter

finely chopped cabbage - 1

2 onions - diced

Procedure :
1. Marinate the bhetki fillet / steak in a mix of vinegar/lemon juice + ginger-garlic paste + onion juice (optional) + green chilli paste (Optional) + very finely chopped coriander leaves + salt/rock salt + freshly ground pepper

2. Finely chop / grate the cabbage. I chopped mine. You may blanch the chopped cabbage...I didnt as i wanted it to retain its crunchiness.

3. Preheat the OTG in bake mode at 250 deg C.

4. Spray / smear butter/oil on the baking tray. Make a bed of the grated / chopped cabbage. Squeeze juice of 2 (or more lemon depending on how tangy you like) lemon. Sprinkle salt (in moderation) & pepper . Mix well and make an uniform bed of cabbage.

5. Place the diced  onions on the cabbage bed. and also scatter some tiny butter cubes on the bed.

6. Now place the marinated fish fillet / steak on the cabbage bed. With a pastry brush, liberally brush the top of fish pieces with melted butter or oil. I had used butter. Now garnish liberally with grated cheese. And finally sprinkle roasted red chilli flakes..


7. Set the OTG at aroun 180 deg C in bake mode for around 12-15 minutes or till the cheese turns golden brown. Prick the fish with a fork to ensure it's cooked. Do not over bake/cook the fish....it'll turn fibrous an chewy.

8. Serve with some crispy fried potato wedges or roasted baby potatoes (as in Sl.13 of this procedure).

And the unanimous verdict was 'YUMMILICIOUS'!!!!


And since this incidental &experimental dish is healthy indeed, it is off to Indrani's Blog Event SPOTLIGHT:HEALTHY BAKING which was originally announced here


And as this baked dish would make a great main course in a Christmas Lunch, it's off to Sudeshna's Blog (COOK LIKE A BONG) ' s CHRISTMAS EVENT

Baked fish .....

Served with greens, steamed vegetables and crispy fried baby potatoes


Easy to cook, healthy and great to taste.....

Ingredient: 

I . For the baked fish :
1. Thick fillet of Bhetki Fish  - about 8 - 10
2. Ginger - garlic paste - 1 tbsp
3. Juice of lemon - 1/4 cup
4. Grated onion / onion juice of 1 big onion
4. Spinach - 5-6 bunches
5. Firm tomatoes - 4
6. Cheddar Cheese grated - 1 cup
7. Butter or EVOO

8. Crushed pepper
9. Chilli flakes
10. Dried oregano

II. Vegetables I used :
1. Tender Baby corns - 8-10
2. Tender small sized carrots - 8-10
3. French Beans -10-12
4. Green peas - 1 cup
Any other vegetables/greens like cauliflower/broccoli florets / cabbage leaves / crunchy ice lettuce etc may be used
5. baby potatoes  - 1/2 kg

III. Others 
1. Rice flour - 1/2 cup
2. Turmeric - a pinch
3. Oil for deep frying
4. Salt
5. Chilli powder

Procedure : in the sequence I do to save time

1. Marinate the fish fillets in Ginger-garlic paste + onion juice + lemon juice + salt + pepper for a couple of hours or overnight (as i do).
2. Steam all vegetables at II of Ingredients. Dont let them lose their crunch
3. Spray or smear the baking tray with butter or Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
4. On it make a bed of whole spinach leaves.
5. Place the marinated fish along with the marinade on the leaves.
6. Roughly chop 3-4 bunches of spinach and garnish the marinated fish fillets with the leaves.
7. Sprinkle liberally crushed black pepper, chilli flakes, oregano, small cubes of butter or drizzle 2-3 tsp of EVOO.
8. Garnish  with grated cheese.
9. Slit the tomatoes on top cross-wise. push in a couple of peppercorns and a pinch of salt into each tomato. smear some butter/EVOO.
10. Put in the baking tray into the preheated oven (temp around 280-300 deg F) for 10-12 minutes.

11. If necessary, i.e if the tomatoes are still raw, put the tomatoes back in the oven for another 5-8 mins.
12. While the baking is being done, in a non-stick pan, smear some butter and saute the steamed veggies with a sprinkling of salt & pepper.
13. Make a batter of rice flour with water, salt, chilli powder and a pinch of turmeric. Dip the steamed potatoes in the batter and deep fry to get crispy fried wholebaby potatoes .

Arrange the baked fish fillets along with the spinach leaves, sauted whole vegetables, crispy fried whole potatoes and serve.

Fish Fry

Fish Fry or Fish Finger is one of my favourite starters! And when I saw a 2.25 kg Bhetki on my weekend market trip, I ordered it to be cut into fillet.....

So here goes the recipe for Fish Fry.....Fish finger recipe would be the same....only difference is the starting point-instead of square or rectangular fillet, the fish has to be cut into thin strips of 3/4" x 3" dimension approximately....





Ingredients : What I used
Bhetki fillet - about 12 - 15 pieces of 2"x2.5" dimension (no hard and fast rule though!)


A. For marination
* Ginger paste : 1 tbsp
* Garlic paste : 1 tbsp
* Onion paste or juice of onion : 2 tbsp paste or 3-4 tbsp juice (I used paste)
* Green chilli paste - 1 tsp (optional)
* Coriander leaves - chopped fine (optional)
* Chilli flakes - 1 tsp (optional)
* Vinegar or lemon juice - 3-4 tbsp
* Freshly ground black pepper - 1 tsp
* Salt - to taste


B. For the coating :
*Arrowroot powder / Cornflour - 3-4 tbsp
*Bread crumbs : 2 cups OR Bread Slices (stale ones preferred) - 5-6 nos. (see below to check out how to prepare breadcrumbs @ home)


Procedure :
1. Marinate the washed and cleaned fish pieces in a mix of all ingredients at 'A'. I refrigerate the marinated fish in an airtight box overnight.




2. Prepare the breadcrumb as shown below ##

3. In a flat bottomed bowl, mix the arrowroot/cornflour with water to make a paste of thin consistency.

4. In a flat plate, take the bread crumb and make an even layer.

5. Take each marinated Fish piece, dip it into the thin batter of arrowroot/cornflour , immediately followed by rolling in the bread crumb to form an uniform coating. Repeat for all the fish pieces.

6. In a deep flat bottomed frying pan, take the oil, heat it and fry the bread crumb coated fish pieces. Take out the fish fries and place them on a kitchen tissue to soak off the excess oil.

7. Serve with Salads and/or Mustard sauce (Kashundi) or any other sauce of your liking!

# Preparing Bread Crumbs @ Home :
-Take the stale breads (Fresh bread contains lots of moisture and hence is not too suitable for making crumbs)
-Place them in a flat tray in the microwave oven. Heat it in microwave for 2 minutes on medium heat. After completion of 2 minutes, keep it in the microwave for another 2-3 minutes for the bread slices to harden.
-Take out the hardened bread slices, break them into small pieces and put them in a mixie/dry grinder.
-Just run it for 5-10 seconds, to get fresh bread crumbs instantly!

Bhetki Hariyali

My Ma introduced me to this dish...she had first tasted it at a Wedding Feast (Biye Baari). She being the great cook she is, made this awesome fish preparation abiding by the instructions of her taste buds!

Much later, after marriage, when I was the one who had to do the cooking whenever friends or relatives came over, instead of just placing my 'order' to Ma, I improvised Ma's green fish recipe, made it microwaveable and hence easier, faster and hassle-free.

This dish has never failed to score brownie points whenever it has been on the menu when I entertained and its ease of preparation makes it one of my favourite recipes.

Ingredients:
A. For the marinade :
- Vinegar : 4-6 tbsp
- Ginger : 1tbsp
- Garlic : 3/4 tbsp
- Chilli flakes : 1 tsp (or depending on your spice preference)
- Black Pepper (freshly crushed) :1 tsp
- Salt : 1 tsp

B. Other Ingredients
- Bhetki fillet - 750gm
- Coriander leaves - 2-3 big bunches
- Green chillies (1 or 2)
- Pudina leaves - 1 small bunch
- Pearl onions - abt 10-15 (I didnt have pearl onion, so I used normal onions, diced)
- Cream - 2 tbsp (optional)
- Capsicum : 1 big or 2 small- diced

Procedure:-
Fish
- Mix all the items at 'A' of Ingredients to prepare the marinade
- Now marinate the washed and cleaned fish fillets. For my convenience, I marinate overnight and cook in the morning. In case of hurry, 1/2 hours marination is sufficient.
- Grill or pan fry the marinated fish fillets. (This is an optional step and may be skipped)

Green Sauce Paste :
- Wash and roughly chop the coriander and mint leaves.
- Put them in a Mixie. Add a dash of sugar and salt, one or two green chillies. Make a smooth paste.

Assembling to bake :
- In a non-stick pan, stir fry the pearl onion and diced capsicum
- In a microwave proof deep container, spray/smear some oil.
- Arranged a layer of the fried pearl Onion and capsicum (keep a small quantity aside) in the cooking container.
- Pour half the quantity of green sauce paste on the fried pearl onions.
- Arrange the grilled / fried fish pieces.
- Cover with the remaining green sauce paste.
- Garnish with the remaining sauted diced onion/pearl and capsicum and a dash of cream (cream is optional).
- Bake it in microwave mode for 7-10 minutes.
The fish is ready to eat.

Note: Sorry about the awful formatting in this post...Blogger has been extremely non-cooperative...So till I reformat this post, please bear with me...
I had forgotten to click a pic of the Pudina/mint leaves. And this picture was taken from Google images