Shorshe Ilish

Mustard arrives three ways: the white seed, the brown, and the oil.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

• 6 hilsa steaks, about 800 g
• 3 tablespoons white mustard seeds
• 1 tablespoon brown mustard seeds
• 5 tablespoons mustard oil
• 6 green chillies, slit
• 1 teaspoon black cumin seeds
• 1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground red chilli
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 200 ml water
• juice of 1 lime, optional
• 20 g coriander leaves, optional

Method

1. MUSTARD ARRIVES THREE WAYS: THE WHITE SEED, THE BROWN, AND THE OIL. Its ingredient list is short and three of its nine entries are mustard -- WHITE MUSTARD, MUSTARD, and MUSTARD OIL, alongside hilsa, green chilli, black cumin, turmeric, chilli powder and salt. Nothing else is in it. No onion, no garlic, no ginger, no tomato. A dish with nine ingredients and three of them the same plant is making a point, and the point is that the three forms taste different: white seed is mild and slightly sweet, brown is sharp and bitter, and the oil is pungent in a way neither seed is.
2. THE SEEDS ARE SOAKED AND GROUND TO A PASTE. Half an hour in warm water, then ground with a little of it. Dry-ground mustard stays gritty and does not thicken.
3. GROUND MUSTARD TURNS BITTER IF IT IS COOKED HARD. It goes in with the water and is brought only to a bare simmer. Boiled, the whole dish is bitter and nothing will take it back.
4. THE OIL IS SMOKED AND THERE IS A LOT OF IT. Five tablespoons, heated until it just smokes. In a dish with no onion to build on, the oil is a main ingredient.
5. THE FISH IS NOT FRIED FIRST HERE. Hilsa is soft and oily and breaks easily; it goes raw into the mustard gravy and cooks there in eight minutes, which is also how it keeps its own fat in the dish.
6. IT IS NOT STIRRED ONCE THE FISH IS IN. The pan is tilted and shaken, as with the Kerala curry on these pages.
7. BLACK CUMIN IS NOT ORDINARY CUMIN. Its article names it specifically. Nigella-like and much more bitter, and a single teaspoon is right.
8. THE CHILLIES GO IN WHOLE AND SLIT. Six of them, which is a lot, and they are meant to be found and eaten.
9. LIME AND CORIANDER ARE OPTIONAL, WHICH ITS ARTICLE SAYS. Lime juice or coriander leaves MAY BE ADDED for flavour. Many cooks add neither.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes