Mouri Parshey

(Parshey Fish in a Fennel based gravy)

Parshey is SDs favourite and everytime the fish is available in the Sunday Fish Market, it would be bought and brought home!

And on most occasions, I make it in the simplest method using kalojeera, shorshe bata etc et

Today after having marinated (in salt & turmeric paste) for 5-10 minutes and lightly frying the fish, just as I was about to pour oil for proceeding with the gravy, I wondered why not try something different! I dug into my bookshelf and pulled out an almost unused book Id bought years ago.. Moner Moto Ranna-Sananda Sankalan (A compilation of recipes by Sanandaa Bengali womens Magazine)

Searching for Parshey, I found an uncommon yet easy recipe where I had at home ALL the ingredients!

So here goes the recipe which was for 4 Parshey (I presume they were BIG sized ones). Since I had 500gm of small sized Parshey, I modified the quantities accordingly..

Ingredients :

1. Small Parshey Fish 500gm

2. Fennel paste 2 tbsp ( I used 2 tbsp fennel seeds)

3. Green Chili paste 1 tbsp (I used 2 long green chillies)

4. Ginger Paste 1 tbsp

5. Turmeric powder tsp

6. Red chilli powder tsp

7. Kashmiri chili powder tsp

8. Plain curd 1 cup (160ml)

9. Salt to taste

10. Sugar tsp

11. Tej Patta -2

12. Fenugreek (Methi) tsp

13. Dry red chili (whole) 2

14. Mustard Oil 4-5 tbsp

Procedure :

1.Tossed the cleaned fish in a tsp of Turmeric & pinch of salt and lightly fried them and kept aside

2. I used my small chutney jar to make a moist paste with the fennel seed & green chilli

3. I took the plain curd and added the fennel (mouri) + green chilli paste and other ingredients given at Sl.Nos 4-10 (of ingredients). Mixed the curd and masala to a smooth paste.

4. In a wok poured the oil and once hot, seasoned with Tej pata, Whole Dry red chilies and methi.

5. I added the curd & masala mix and fried it well till the oil had separated from the masala.

6. Added the fried Fish and sprinkled about bowl of water. Covered it and cooked for abt 5 minutes (or till it comes to a boil) on medium flame. The gravy should be thick. Garnish with a few slit green chilies.

Serve it witn hot steamed rice!!!

This is my 2nd entry to the Blog event ''THINK SPICE:THINK TURMERIC", hosted for Nov '09 by Sudeshna of COOK LIKE A BONG and the Think Spice event is the brainchild of Sunita of Sunita's World .

The logo for the event is...