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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Fish head with baby potatoes and dried lentil dumplings

A very basic curry made with crushed fish head and potatoes, this one is symbolic of the very essence of Odia cuisine. Practicing frugality and making the most out of the scarce resources, the Odia women in rural areas come up with the most ingenious recipes to feed their families. This one for example used just the fish head (and also tail in some cases) with a large quantity of potatoes and onions. The abundance of potatoes make it somewhat sweeter in taste than the regular mustard gravies. The fat in the fish head melts and permeates the curry to give it that undeniably awesome flavor.


















Cooking Time Required: 15-20 mins


Ingredients -

  • 1 no. Maccha munda/Fish head 
  • 1 tsp mustard-garlic paste
  • 1 mediu sized onion 
  • 1/2 tsp mustard seeds 
  • 10-12 baby potatoes / 1 large potato (if baby potatoes are not available)
  • 2 nos dry red chili/green chilli 
  • 8-9 nos boris/dried lentil dumpings ( optional )
  • salt to taste
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric
  • 3-4 tsp vegetable oil ( mustard oil is preferable )



Preparation: Clean the fish head thoroughly. Add salt and turmeric and keep aside for 15 mins. (Any large sized freshwater fish weighing 1 kg or more will do.)

Wash and cut the onion into chunks. Cut the baby potatoes into two.

Cooking: Deep fry the fish head till crispy, crush nicely and keep aside.

Heat 1 tsp of oil in a wok. Fry the boris/lentil dumplings to a reddish color and remove from the wok.

Add the remaining oil followed by the mustard seeds and broken red chillis . Allow seeds to crackle.

Add the onion chunks and stir fry till translucent. Add the baby potatoes at this stage and fry for 3-4 mins. Add the crushed fish head along with 1 cup of water, mustard-garlic paste, salt and turmeric . Bring to a boil.

Allow to simmer for 5-6 mins while stirring at intervals. Remove from fire, add the fried boris and keep aside for 10 mins.

Serve with rice and dal.

















Note: Add 2 green chillis while making the mustard-garlic paste for upping the spice
content.



















This is an old photo where I have used baby potatoes. For an added twist, this recipe is also prepared with dried/smoked fish.

3 comments:

  1. Very nice oriya dish. Use of fish head is really unique

    ReplyDelete
  2. Never tried fish with veggies...looks yum...

    ReplyDelete
  3. It Looks delicious!u have a nice space..........

    ReplyDelete

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