I very strongly believe that mothers, particularly stay-at-home mothers, are the most underappreciated, overworked members of our society. They take all sorts of crap from everyone, but selflessly endure to better the lives of their children. I mean, think about it -- how many times do you think you got angry at your mother, bit and/or scratched her, threw a tantrum that she had to tirelessly deal with, and made a mess with your vomit/poop/pee? Okay, considering this is a blog dedicated to the wonderfulness of food, that's pretty gross. But, really -- if you CAN thank your mother for doing all those things and more, you probably should. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be with my mother this weekend, but I was able to Skype with her and my dad to send my love and appreciation. Happy Mother's Day, Ma. This post is for you.
I'll be honest -- I was feeling a little lazy yesterday. It rained pretty much all day, which made me want to bury myself in my comforter and get lost in a good book even more! So, I did. But then I started craving a home-cooked meal. No, not just any home-cooked meal, but one of my MOTHER's home-cooked meals. Deciding that I needed to cook some salmon in the freezer, I set it out to defrost, buried myself in a book of short stories, and came back in a few hours ready to make one of the most common dishes I had grown up eating -- simple maacher jhol (fish curry).
This is a pretty simple recipe, but it really hits the spot on a rainy, dreary day. I distinctly remember my mom watching me cross the finish line of every marathon I've run and helping me home as I so gingerly walked to and from the car. Afterward, she'd always make me a home-cooked meal of maacher jhol / bhat (fish curry and race) for me after each of these races. I'd have a bowl-full of food, then crawl into bed with my millions of ice packs, feeling tired, but satiated. It really is a perfect post-race meal, guys. Fish curry is typically eaten with rice, but I just like to eat it on its own sometimes. Oh, and I always eat it with my hands. To me, it's blasphemous to consume curry with a fork and knife (provided you're not in a nice restaurant). You can use most types of fish with this recipe, but I've typically used catfish or salmon.
Enjoy!
Ingredients:
-Your favorite cuts of your favorite fish
-Bolst curry powder (yes, it must be Bolst)
-Ground turmeric
-Salt/pepper to taste
-1 medium-sized tomato
-2 small white potatoes
-1 bunch of cilantro
-1 pinch of paanch phoron (you can get this at any Indian grocery store)
-water
-2 tbsp fresh ginger
-garlic powder
-1-2 tbsp of canola oil
-1 hot pepper (of your favorite variety)
Preparation:
-Clean the fish properly and cut into small pieces (say 4" long?), leaving the bones in (if it's not fileted). Make sure the fish pieces are dry.
-In a large bowl, mix 1-2 tsp of turmeric powder, garlic powder, and salt with the fish. Make sure each piece of fish is well-coated in the turmeric powder. DO NOT ADD TOO MUCH TURMERIC POWDER! Adding too much will make any dish bitter.
-Dice the tomato and potatoes into small pieces.
-In a large non-stick sautee pan, fry the fish pieces on both sides with the canola oil until they are cooked through. Never curry fish until it's cooked! Currying raw fish runs you the risk of (a) consuming raw fish, and (b) subjecting you to potentially really smelly fish. Frying it with the turmeric powder cuts that fishy smell.
-In a large sauce pan, combine the fish, enough water to cover the fish pieces (not too much!), salt and pepper to taste, the hot pepper, 1 tsp of Bolst curry powder, the diced tomatoes and potatoes, paanch phoron, ginger, and garlic powder (ginger and garlic powder to taste...I just kind of eye-ball measurements).
-Cook on medium-high heat until the curry starts to bubble (don't let it boil!). Once you start to see bubbles, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the curry, and let it 'do its thing' for about 20-30 minutes. Of course, adjust seasonings as needed, but when you feel like it's about done, add a handful of fresh cilantro to the maacher jhol.
-Serve on its own, or with a serving of basmati rice. Enjoy!
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| Note: This is not my curry. I have been forgetting to take pictures lately, so here's the best I've got for now. Courtesy of Google images. :) |
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