People, whose only contact with Indian food have been through stereotypical Indian restaurants, tend to think of Indian food as an extremely complex cuisine with very complicated cooking methods that involve a long list of spices. Unfortunately, that idea is completely inaccurate. There is, of course, a very long list of Indian recipes that do indeed involve highly complex cooking methods and lots of spices, but they are by no means a complete reflection of the immensely varied Indian cuisine. Most regional home-cooked meals in India involve very few spices. In traditional Bengali cuisine, particularly, we take tempering very seriously, and a great majority of the time, we do not use more than 2-3 spices in a particular dish. Tel koi is one such dish. Even though extremely delicious, although very hot, this dish takes just minutes to cook and uses very few ingredients–things that are always available in a Bengali kitchen (and arguably in any kitchen).
This one is my grandma’s famous recipe as remembered and interpreted by my aunts.
How to make tel koi
TEL KOI
Ingredients
- 4 large koi mach
For frying
- salt to taste
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 2 tbsp mustard oil plus extra for frying fish
For gravy
- 2 tbsp mustard seeds
- 1 tbsp poppy seeds
- 1/2 tsp red chili powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/3 cup mustard oil
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 green chilies slit
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Add salt and turmeric to washed and cleaned fish. Set aside for 15 mins.
- Heat 2 tbsp mustard oil in a pan and lightly fry the fish (approximately 2 mins on each side). Remove and keep aside.
- Grind poppy seeds and mustard seeds with chili and turmeric powder into a smooth paste. Now add 1/2 cup water to the paste.
- Add the remaining mustard oil to the pan. Once hot, temper with green chilies.
- Add the diluted mustard paste to the pan. Adjust salt and cook over low heat until oil separates.
- Add the fried fish and cook over low heat until most of the water has evaporated.
- Serve with steamed white rice.
Dhrubaa Mukherjee--An academic by profession, a contributor to Huffington Post, a dancer by passion, a compulsive foodie, a former flight attendant, and a constant traveler, I am, what they call, a transnational gourmand (gourmet?). I am not only fascinated by the tastes, colors, textures and aromas of food, I am equally intrigued by the histories, traditions and cultural inter-junctions that drive/influence recipes.
Leave a Reply