Til Machhi/Fish in sesame seeds paste

Being a perfect ghoti girl I have been raised eating most of the regular fish curries in mustard sauce. Although Ma used to cook occasionally fish kaliya, kalojeere jhol, etc, but the dominant flavor in our kitchen has always been the mustard sauce gravy or sarshe jhal. I cook that often but try sometimes a little different. The man in the house is not a big fan of mustard, so that compels me to try something else all the time.

This time I thought of trying sesame seeds paste instead of mustard seeds paste and it worked very well. We got from our favorite Korean grocery shop fresh Tilapia and taste was delicious. I remember the contrast of Tilapia here in USA with that in India. Here we consider Tilapiya as good as any other fish but in India Tilapia we rarely have and that too in any parties or occasion we can never think of serving that fish at all. Here we make fish fry, fish sticks/fingers out of Tilapia fillet and that is well respected fish amongst all other fishes. No idea, why in India it is not that popular. In  India it is much cheaper than other fishes. I heard once my grandma has found some insects inside a tilapia while cleaning the fish at home and then that fish has never been repeated in our home. Baba following grandma's rule has never bought that fish in his entire life. But after didi's marriage she cooked that fish in her place and I have liked the taste very much. 

Now here as the taste of this fish is very good and also we can buy it any where fresh, we prefer to buy it often . I like to buy the whole fish compared to the fillet pieces. I tried the sesame seeds gravy with Tilapia steak pieces. You can also try it with Rohu/Katla/Carp fishes, too.

 

Ingredients:

1. Steak pieces of Tilapia: 6 pieces
2. Turmeric powder: 3 teaspoon
3. Salt as per taste
4. Onion seeds :1/2 teaspoon
5. Green chilli : 5
6. Poppy seeds: 2 teapoons
7. Sesame seeds: 4 teaspoons
8. Mustard oil: 3 tablespoons
9. Coriander leaves for garnishing
10. Water: 1.5 cup

Steps:

1. Rub salt and turmeric to your fish pieces. Keep it marinated for 10-15 minutes.

2. Heat mustard oil in a pan. When the smoke comes out, reduce the heat and fry the fish pieces. Make sure the oil is hot enough otherwise it can stick to the pan (even non stick) and can break into small pieces.

3. In between make a smooth paste of sesame seeds, poppy seeds and 3 green chillies with little water. 

4. When you are done frying all fishes, take them off the pan. If you do not have enough oil left in the pan add one teaspoon more. I had enough oil left for the gravy in the pan so did not feel to add any more. 

5. Add onion seeds (Kalonji/kalo jeere) and slit 2 green chillies in the pan. When they splutter, add the turmeric powder.

6. Add the sesame seeds paste now and mix it well with the turmeric in the pan. Don't fry it longer otherwise the flavor will disappear and it will not make a good smooth gravy.

7. Add water. Let the gravy boil. When it starts boiling, add the fish pieces.

8. When the gravy thickens, add some chopped coriander leaves and drizzle some mustard oil on top.  Switch the heat off. 

9 Your fish is ready to serve with steamed hot rice.

Enjoy!!!!