Tel Koi—shorshe diye
Climbing perch cooked in a mustard sauce
- Cooking time40 mins
Calories394kcal
This is Tapati Lahiri's recipe of "tel koi" from the pre-Partition Faridpur region of Bnegal. There are many variations of this dish all over Bengal, so much so that it may be best to think of "tel koi" as a style of cooking the koi fish rather than a single recipe.
"Tel" in Bengali means oil and "koi" is the climbing perch fish (not to be confused with the Japanese "koi"). So "tel koi" is koi fish cooked until oil floats on top. That is about where the similarities between all of the "tel koi" variations end.
Tapati Lahiri's version of this recipe uses whole fenugreek to flavour the mustard oil in which the fish is cooked. The koi fish is marinated simply with ground brown mustard, salt, sugar, turmeric and plain sour yoghurt. The dish is ready to eat in under half an hour if you don't count the time it takes to clean the fish.
Koi fish is always bought live. These days fish mongers happily scale and cut the fish for you. Even then the fish is very slimy and it takes a good bit of scrubbing with either coarse salt or whole-wheat flour to rid it off the slippery stuff. It is all well-worth the effort, of course—koi is meaty, flavourful and delicious.
Coming up in a future episode is Rohitashwa's paternal family's version of tel koi, which looks and tastes completely different, but is equally delectable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ingredients
- 200 g koi machh (climbing perch)
- 15 g mustard seeds (soaked for 2 hours)
- 50 g plain yoghurt (beaten)
- 40 g mustard oil
- 7 pcs green chillies
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp methi (fenugreek seeds)
- 7 g salt
- 7 g sugar
Method
- Soak mustard seeds in water for 2 hours.
- Wash the koi well, rubbing it against something abrasive like a strainer, to get rid of all the sliminess. Set it to dry.
- Once dry, coat it with 4 g salt and ¼ tsp turmeric. Set aside.
- Grind the soaked mustard seeds to a fine paste with 3 green chillies and 3 g salt.
- To the fish, now add the mustard paste, beaten yoghurt, the remaining ¾ tsp turmeric, sugar, and 30 g mustard oil. Coat well.
- Heat the remaining 10 g mustard oil in a kadai. Temper it with methi seeds, taking care to ensure that they don't burn.
- Add the fish along with all the sauce, and lay the fish out in a single layer.
- Slit and add the remaining 4 green chillies, cover and cook for about 12–15 minutes until the fish is done. Uncover and turn all the fish over once midway.
- When the sauce has reduced, and oil floats to the top, turn off the heat and finish with a teaspoon of raw mustard oil. Allow it to rest, covered, for a few more minute before serving.
