Kankana from Sunshine and Smile is my first friend to write a guest post for my blog. She has moved to US less than two years ago, having worked in IT field, this geeky techy girl turned her passion to cooking and started her beautiful blog. I am a big fan to her pictures and I must say that her photographs are perfectly set and well balanced. I hope to learn from her someday. She is sweet, friendly and such a warm person to talk to.She is living in California as well, right next to the city where I am residing and one day we hope to meet each other. Here she is with her recipe, that talks about her Bengali origin and a dish that is close to her heart. I am so honored and excited to have her over my space.

If I have to pick one dish that I'll never get bored of eating, it would be Bhapa Ilish (steamed hilsa fish in mustard sauce). Every Bengali soul can relate to this dish in their own little way. It's one of my favorite and a delicacy in Bengali Cuisine. Hilsa fish, or Ilish mach as we call it in Bengali, is a sea fish but it is mainly available in the major Bangladesh rivers. Ilish is also caught from the sea but these are not as tasty as those caught from the river. As much as I enjoy fresh fish, I don't mind frozen fish at times. Having said that, Ilish is one such fish I like to eat fresh and only fresh!

At home, whenever Mom cooked with Ilish, the whole house would get filled with warm aromatic flavors.

When Vijitha reached out to me to do a guest post for the series Friendship chain ? spread the specialty, started by Anamika of Taste Junction, I felt so honored to be a part of this chain. I could have never said 'No' to her :) I started visiting Vijitha's blog couple of months back and within the first few weeks, we became friends - exchanging emails and chatting non-stop. She stays close to my house and we are planning to meet up sometime soon! Yes, you heard me right.. meet up in person :) Thanks you my friend for inviting me at your gorgeous blog!



When she told me that she enjoys seafood, 'Bhapa Ilish' immediately popped in my mind. Ever since I moved to California, I have been looking for Hilsa/Ilish fish and had no luck so far, so I used Tilapia for this dish. In Bengali, Shorshe is mustard and Maach is fish and since I was not using Ilish, decided to call this dish.. Shoshe Mach :) Typically, we use mustard seeds and mustard oil for this dish and that gives it a strong pungent taste, which I absolutely enjoy. If you want to mellow it down, you can add some coconut milk or grated coconut or even some plain yogurt in the sauce. Another key ingredient to remember is green chili. You can use as much or as little you want. I have not seen my Mom using a lot of red chili powder, but she always uses green chili and that adds an interesting flavor to the dish without making it super hot!

I used a bamboo steamer to steam the fish, but you can always bake it in the oven or use any other steamer. Just wrap the fish tightly in an aluminum foil or parchment paper and it should be fine. Depending on the fish you chose to use, steaming time may differ.

Ingredients:

2 fish fillet (I used tilapia)

2 tbs mustard seeds

3 green chilies

1 small onion

3 tbs oil (preferably mustard oil but I used canola oil)

2 tsp turmeric powder

chopped cilantro, for garnish

a pinch of sugar

Salt

Directions:Grind the mustard seeds to fine dust.

Using a food processor, grate the onion and 1 green chili.

Mix the powdered mustard seeds with grated onion, turmeric powder, oil and salt.

Rub the mixture nicely on the fish fillet.

Arrange each fish separately on an aluminum foil or parchment paper.

Slit 2 green chilies in half, place on top of the fillets and wrap the fish properly.

Let it rest for 15 minutes. Then, steam it for 10 minutes.

Before you open it up, let it rest for 5 minutes.

Garnish with cilantro and enjoy it with white rice.