Machher Dimer Borar Jhol
Fish roe fritters in a spicy sauce
- Cooking time75 mins
Calories193kcal
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Ingredients
For the fritters
- 125 g machher dim (roe of freshwater fish)
- 25 g onions (sliced)
- 3 g green chillies (finely chopped)
- 2 g salt
- ¼ tsp turmeric
- 12 g maida (all-purpose flour)
- mustard oil for frying
For the sauce
- 100 g potatoes (3-cm cubes)
- 45 g onions (sliced)
- 20 g tomato (chopped)
- 2 green chillies (slit)
- 3 g garlic (crushed)
- 8 g ginger paste
- 25 g mustard oil
- 1 dried red chilli
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cardamom
- 1 cinnamon
- ¼ tsp cumin seeds
- ¼ tsp coriander powder
- ¼ tsp red chilli powder
- ½ tsp turmeric
- ½ tsp cumin powder
- 225 ml hot water
- 7 g salt
- 7 g sugar
- 5 g ghee
- ½ tsp Bengali gorom moshla
Method
For the fritters
- Clean the fish row thoroughly and leave it to dry completely (in the fridge on a hot day).
- Extract the fish roe from the membrane sac that encases it.
- To it, add sliced onions, chopped green chillies, salt and turmeric, and mix well.
- When you are ready to fry, heat mustard oil for shallow-frying.
- Just before frying, mix in the flour.
- Drop dollops of the mixture in oil (ours are small 15 g portions).
- Fry on medium-low heat (~150°C) for 5 mins. Set aside.
For the sauce
- Cut poattoes and 3-cm cubes, slice onions, chop tomato, crush garlic and slit green chillies.
- Heat mustard oil. Temper it with dried red chilli, bay leaf, cardamom, cinnamon, and cumin seeds.
- Add potatoes and fry on low heat, covered, for 5 mins.
- Add onions and continue frying for a couple more minutes before adding the tomato, followed by garlic.
- After 5 more minues, add the powdered spices: cumin, corainder, turmeric and red chilli. Using splashes of water as required, braise on low heat until the raw smell of the spices goes away. This will take about 5 mins.
- Add ginger paste, and after 2 more mins, add the fritters, Bengali gorom moshla and slit green chillies. Mix everything together.
- Add hot water for the sauce, along with salt and sugar.
- Simmer on low heat for 5 mins, then turn off the heat and finish with ghee and Bengali gorom moshla.
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