Bengali recipe
A classic
Bengali fish
Two AA Rosette winning chef Chad Rahman of Chez Mumtaj,
in St Albans, gives Tandoori an insight into his love of hilsa fish
wo AA Rosette winning chef Chad
Rahman of Chez Mumtaj, in St
Albans, gives Tandoori an insight
into his love of hilsa and a modern
interpretation of Chandpuri hilsa
fish curry.
In my culinary journey as a chef and as a welltravelled individual, my passion and love for fish is
paramount. I have tasted and
had the good fortune to cook
with many varieties of fish from
all around the world, but my favourite fish undoubtedly is the
Chandpur hilsa.
This particular fish I hold
very dear to my heart. It brings
back mouth-watering memories of my childhood years.
On a family trip to Bangladesh
on board a flight from London
Heathrow to Dhaka at the age
of 14 years old, I can still recollect the vivid and vibrant imagery of the terrain.
As the plane descended at
Dhaka I remember looking out
to see a vast expanse of blue
turquoise water, meandering
through lush emerald green
fields. I could see small boats
casting their nets on the mighty Padma River. It is
at that moment the revered hilsa fish flashes through
my mind having tasted it prior by the hands of my
mothers’ culinary repertoire back in England. There
is an overwhelming sensation as my mouth starts to
salivate uncontrollably.
The recipe I have given here hails from my mother’s ancestral roots of Chandpur, Bangladesh. It is
unquestionably the king of fish dishes from the Indian sub-continent. The Hilsa fish hits all the right
T
notes - taste, flavour, aroma and texture. It’s the national fish of Bangladesh and is a popular seasonal
delicacy on Bengali tables.
It is a tropical and oily sea fish, but it lays its
eggs in large rivers. After being born, the young
hilsa (known as jatka) then swim back to the sea.
They are caught before they swim to the sea because those caught from the sea are not considered to be as tasty as those
caught from the river and tributaries. The fish is full of tiny
bones which require trained
eating/hands to handle.
As it is anadromous in nature
(an uncommon phenomenon in
tropical waters), the hilsa lives in
the sea for most of its life, but
migrates up to 1,200 km inland
through rivers in the Indian subcontinent for spawning during
the monsoon season. Distances
of 50–100 km are usually normal
in the Bangladesh rivers.
In Bangladesh, hilsa is mainly
caught in the Padma (lower
Ganges), Meghna (lower Brahmaputra), and Jamuna rivers.
Those from the Padma are considered to be the best in taste.
It is said that the more upstream
the hilsa fish travels, the tastier it gets.
By the time the hilsa travels up the Padma River
to Chandpur, it has already swam to less muddy waters and attained a fine taste. In Bangladesh, hilsa
can be smoked, fried, steamed, baked in young
banana leaves, prepared with mustard seed paste,
curd, aubergine, different spices like cumin and so
on. It is said that people can prepare hilsa in more
than 50 ways, requiring very little oil to cook whilst
its roe is also popular as a side dish.
It is a tropical
and oily sea
fish, but it
lays its eggs
in large
rivers
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