Alu Potol die Machher Jhol/Carp Cooked in a Potato-Pointed Gourd Gravy

I have been off for quite some time due to my ill health. I have been recently diagnosed with diabetes. That makes me feel sick for on and off. Although I am on a very strict diet and medication, my negligence towards my health is forcing me to highly pay off. Uhhh..Now I understand why the yearly check up is so important for us.

Puja is knocking our door. All of your puja shopping must have been complete by now. The matching accessories and jewelry must have been added to your stock, too. Those like us who are far from our home country now rely a lot on online shopping. Some are fortunate to be close to a few Indian shops. Some rely on the good recent trips to own country and bring a lot of special clothing and accessories to use in the special occasions like Durga Puja, Diwali. This year I had been planning to visit India which some how did not materialize. I had planned to buy some sarees from a few boutiques in Kolkata but that did not happen. So I was little morose. But I had no idea how Durga Ma has stored surprise for me. The last week end we visited Diwali Mela in DC. There were many stalls carrying varieties of clothes and sarees, and jewelries. I found there one and only Bengali stall carrying the sarees of my choice. I got one and felt really blessed.  After 3 years I am going to wear a new saree in Durga Puja.

Now lets come to the food part. Certainly we will be engaged in tempting, mouth watering, rich aromatic food during this festive season. So before the Puja starts I thought of cooling the body with simple machher jhol and bhat. It can make your stomach ready for the upcoming ceremonial food varieties. I got good big pointed gourds during my last visit to local Indian grocery store. I have not made fish curry with potato and pointed gourd for some years as we don't get the good sized potol or pointed gourd here very often.  Whenever I got them, I have made several other recipes than this. This time I did not leave the chance of making this simple every day delicacy of all Bengalies.

Ingredients:

1. Carp/Rohu/Katla fish: 6 pieces
2. Alu/Potato: 1 big
3. Pointed Gourd/Potol: 8
4. Ginger paste: 1 tablespoon
5. Tomato: 1 medium
6. Panch Foron: 1 teaspoon
7.Randhuni/Carom seeds: 1/2 teaspoon
8.Slit green chillies: 4
9. Coriander powder: 1 teaspoon
10. Cumin powder: 1 teaspoon
11: Turmeric powder: 1 teaspoon  (additional required for marinating fish)
12. Red chilli powder: 1/2 teaspoon
13. Salt as per taste
14. Hot Water: 2 cups
15. Mustard oil


Steps:

1. Marinate the fish with salt and turmeric for 10-15 minutes. Add little mustard oil on the fish and rub before adding it to Kadhai/pan. That helps less oil spluttering while frying the fish.

2. Heat mustard oil in kadhai. When the smoke comes out, reduce the heat to medium and the fish pieces to the pan. I have fried the fish until they browned from all the sides. You can fry it to your desired level.

3. Meanwhile you can cut the potato and pointed gourd to longitudinal pieces. You need to peel the potato and then cut them into vertical pieces. We have been following this particular way of chopping potato for any jhol/soup cooking for generations. Really I have no reason of following this pattern of chopping other than to maintain the tradition.

4. Peel the ponited gourd in way that it has some ridges left on the skin. You can actually peel off every alternate strip. 

5. Rub the potato and pointed gourd with salt and turmeric.

6. Make a paste of fresh ginger. Since I am not using a lot of spices, I have not used any store bought ready made spices. That really varies the taste. I do not use at all ready made ginger garlic paste from stores. Specially for this kind of simple dishes, the taste varies a lot with fresh ingredients.

7. Add Cumin powder, Turmeric powder, Red chilli powder and Coriander powder in a bowl. Add little water to it and make a mixture of spices and set aside.  I prefer to make fresh coriander and cumin powder at home as I don't like the store bought ready made powders that does not contain any flavor.

8. Heat 2 tablespoons of Mustard oil in a kadhai. I have used a fresh kadhai to make the jhol/gravy. I have not used the same kadhai or the oil left over after frying the fish. Since I am not using any onion or garlic in the recipe, the oil left after frying the fish would still contain the smell of fish. I have discarded the left over oil. You can save it and use it later to fry next batch of fish in future. When smoke comes out, turn the heat to medium.

9. Add  panch foron, carom seeds/randhuni (optional) and slit green chillies in kadhai. 

10. Add marinated potato in the kadhai. Fry it from all sides. Then add the pointed gourd pieces and fry them, too, also for a while until they change color. 

11. Add finely chopped tomato and fry it until the the red skin melts well in the oil. 

12. Add the spices mixture to the kadhai and fold it in well coated with the vegetables. Keep stirring to make sure the spice and vegetable does not stick to the bottom of the kadhai. When the oil oozes out of the spice, add the salt. 

13. Now heat 2 cups of water and add the hot water to the kadhai. When the gravy starts boiling, add fish pieces to it.  Cover and cook for 3-4 minutes.

14. Serve it hot with steamed white rice.

Enjoy