In my hunt to find the perfect combination of recipes I read this old saying, “Mach-e Batth-e Bangali” (“Fish and rice make a Bengali” – “the country of Bengal” is the direct translation of Bangladesh). This saying gives a snapshot of what daily meals are like on the river delta where fish are plentiful and rice is handy. If you have time a pot of Basmati rice goes wonderfully with this menu. Other great sides include naan and chapati breads.
PS. The potatoes were hot. Not advised for children, unless you are ok with the side effect: laser eyes.
Potato Curry (Aloor Dom/Aloo Dum) [Recipe]
Small red potatoes cooked in a blend of spices including cardamom, cinnamon, red chili powder, ginger paste, and onion.
Fish and leeks in Hot Mustard Sauce (Sorse Bata Diya Maach) [Recipe]
Even when marinated overnight, a hearty fish like trout or salmon holds up to a spice bath of turmeric, mustard, cumin, garam masala, cilantro, ginger, and garlic.
Spinach Bhaji (Palong Shaak Bhaji) [Recipe]
Spinach stir-fried with panch phoron, the Bangladeshi 5 spice made up of fennel seed, mustard seed, black nigella, golden fenugreek and brown cumin seed
Vermicelli in Sweet Custard (Shemai Custard) [Recipe]
In this Bengali recipe, vermicelli is cooked in cardamom flavored milk, tossed with golden raisins and slivered almonds. This dessert can be served hot or cold.
Spellings vary by region. Every effort has been made to be accurate. If you notice an error, please let me know.
Can’t wait to see it! Looks like a delicious menu!
Thanks Astrid! My full grocery cart looked heavenly! Looking forward to this one too.
I am a bong (bong is the urban lingo for bengali) and the spellings are perfect. The saying also is perfectly true. Bengali and food means “Fish and Rice”. Your menu has already got me salivating. I actually posted a recipe of “Sorse Bata Diya Maach” last month on my blog.
Thanks for your help regarding the Sorse Bata Diya Maach… I’m looking forward to trying this recipe!
I am SO looking forward to this. I ate a whole fish in mustard at a Bangladeshi restaurant in NYC in 2005 and still remember it so fondly. Here’s what I wrote about it then: “It was not swimming in sauce. Instead it was coated with a paste made of freshly ground spices, much like a Malayan rempeh. It was very very good. A heady blend of flavors, of sweet and hot and salt and spicy. And so I devoured it, head, tail and all in between.”
I will cut my fish up in small pieces, but a whole fish sounds heavenly! I would probably do whole fish if I had trout, but a salmon —- I would need an army to eat that!
The whole fish used in the recipe are the smaller fishes. “Pabda” is the most popular small fish that goes best with this recipe. heres a image i found on internet
http://www.ichchhapuron.com/home/chingri.jpg