Bengali Mustard Fish Curry

About this Recipe...

Fish curry with mustard paste is one of the most popular fish preparation in bengali cuisine. In this recipe mustard paste is the main ingredient which add a very unique flavor to this dish. The spicy and little pungent dish cooked in mustard oil with onion paste, green chili paste, black and yellow mustard seed paste and little poppy seed paste.

In traditional bengali cooking, mustard oil is used as a cooking medium to cook all the fish, meat and vegetable curry recipes. I usually use mustard oil for all my bengali fish and meat recipes and some of the authentic bengali vegetable dishes where the flavor of mustard oil is must. For a good, bengali mustard paste based recipe needs the flavor of mustard oil, so if you are preparing this dish then use mustard oil only.

We Bengalis are famous for our fish eating habits and preparing various kinds of fish recipes. This particular recipe goes very well with Hilsa fish but I am unable to get fresh Hilsa fish here. Hence preparing this dish with Salmon which is also a very flavorful fish. You can use other fishes also in this recipe. So let's see the ingredients and start making this dish.

Ingredients

• 4 Pieces Fish fillets
• Salt to taste
• 1 tsp Turmeric powder for marinating the fish
• 1 Tbsp Mustard oil for frying the fish + 2Tbsp for making the curry
• 1/2 tsp Nigella seeds or kalaunji
• 1/4 Cup Onion paste
• 1 tsp Turmeric powder
• 1 Tbsp Green chili paste
• 1 Tbsp Black mustard seeds
• 1 Tbsp Yellow mustard seeds
• 1 Tbsp Poppy seeds
• 2-3 Slitted green chili
• 1/4 tsp Sugar (optional)

Directions

1. Soak both the mustard seeds and poppy seeds with little water for half an hour. Add little salt and blend it to a smooth paste.
2. Now marinate the fish with turmeric powder and salt and keep it aside for few minutes.
3. Now in a pan heat some mustard oil and fry the marinated fish fillets lightly and take it out from the pan.
4. Now on the same pan add some more mustard oil and add nigella seeds for tempering.
5. When it starts spluttering add onion paste and green chili paste and fry it until the raw smell can go away.
6. Now add the mustard and poppy seed paste to it followed by turmeric powder and salt to taste.
7. Mix everything well and add little water for the gravy and cook it till it comes to a boil.
8. Now add pinch of sugar, Slitted green chilies and fried fish fillets to the gravy.
9. Cook it for few more minutes so the fish can absorb the gravy nicely and switch off the flame.
10. Serve the fish curry with hot steamed rice or pulao and enjoy.