Ilish Mach Shido in Tagine, slow cooked Ilish Fish in a mustard infusion.

Ilish mach, Ilish fish, slow steamed, a traditional method but cooked in an unconventional vessel with an unconventional ingredient! Its the tagine and mustard cream, I know not very Bengali!

I love using my tagine for slow cooking. So there is no reason to not use it for other cuisines!

From the time I’ve had my tagine its been used for lots of dishes and frequently for my fish ‘shido’ which means steam cooked.

I do use mustard cream as opposed to freshly blended mustard seeds but its just a personal preference today and I often do both together or either! One thing that’s paramount is please use Colmans English mustard cream as its potent and is not heavy on vinegar which ruins the end taste!

I’ve used mustard oil from Kolkata, it does make a huge difference using mustard oil. Try source an edible brand fit for consumption although if you are using it occasionally its unlikely to cause no damage.

Lastly you don’t need a tagine but a clay vessel does impart an earthy hint of flavour. You can use any type of pan of your choice!

What you will need:

My mustard oil from Kolkata
courtesy of my little brother!

INGREDIENTS:

8 pieces of Ilish fish steaks
Quarter cup mustard oil.
8 fresh green chillies, 4 of them sliced.
1 inch piece fresh ginger
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 small onion
5 tsp Colmans mustard cream or
2 tbsp brown mustard seeds

Preparation:

Blitz the onion to a blend with ginger and 4 fresh chillies.
Blitz the mustard seeds also if you’re using it instead of mustard cream.

Method:

Combine all the ingredients together in a pot or non stick pan. I used my Tagine.