Machher Dimer Bora

You may have heard about the Bengali love for fish. In a land criss-crossed by rivers and waterbodies, plus an entire bay named after the region, this is hardly a surprise. But do you know which part of the fish most Bengalis save for the last bite? It would probably be a tie between the fish head and the fish roe. Most people have a favourite fish that they like the eggs of—mine is parshey (a freshwater mullet), with hilsa (a shad) coming a close second.

But large fish, carps such as rohu, katla, etc., yield a lot of eggs—especially during the monsoons—so, it is possible to buy just the fish eggs by weight in the fresh markets. This is the roe that gets made into crunchy fritters and served alongside khichuri on a rainy day, or with just ghee and rice. And it is not uncommon in our family to have a fish roe fritter curry (machher dim'er borar jhol) in place of fish curry on some days. It is affordable, nutritious, and hearty.

Now, machh'er dim'er bora is quite simple to make, but cleaning the fish roe is something you need to watch once to see how it is done. The fish eggs are all enclosed in a thin membrane with some blood vessels to supply nutrition to the eggs. This membrane is chewy and needs to be removed.

Another note about our recipe: we don't use garlic or ginger in the fritters since these can mask the flavour of the eggs. This also means that the egg has to be very fresh (ideally from a live fish), from a freshwater fish. If you are iffy about the quality of your fish roe, that is, if they smell very fishy, then you can add a little chopped garlic if you like.