Chitol Machher Kaliya
A rich, onion-based preparation of the Indian featherback
- Cooking time90 mins
Calories742kcal
Chitol (the Indian featherback), especially its belly a.k.a. "peti", is one of the most expensive fish you can buy in Bengal. It costs more than large prawns, crabs, or even mutton. It is comparable in market price only to the large ilish (hilsa fish). If you want to really roll out the red carpet for a guest, you cook chitol peti for them. The chitol belly has a meaty texture with a thick layer of fat near the belly cavity. One belly steak will span the entirety of your dinner plate! It is a rare indulgence for most Bengalis.
While the ventral side of the fish, "peti", is cut in steaks and cooked in gravies like kaliya, the dorsal side, "gaada", has an excessive number of fine bones. This part of the fish is normally scraped for its meat and tuned into fish dumplings, called "muithya".
Today we are making an onion-ginger–based kaliya. In the world of Mughlai gravies, kaliyas are considered lighter, everyday gravies, compared to the more decadent korma. These days, though, even a kaliya seems plenty indulgent, and we are happy to serve this chitol kaliya in place of mutton for any feast.
As most long-time viewers of our channel know, we skip the garlic in our kaliya. This produces a sweeter flavour which sets our kaliya apart from regular onion-garlic-ginger based preparations. Definitely give this a try next time you find some good chitol in your local market.
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Ingredients
- 1 kg chitol machh
- 15 g salt (for marination)
- 5 g turmeric (for marination)
- 80 g mustard oil
- 10 g ghee
- 75 g onions (sliced)
- 150 g onions (ground to a paste)
- 20 g ginger paste
- 30 g tomatoes (chopped)
- 30 g raisins
- 8 green chillies (slit)
- 50 g yoghurt (beaten)
- 4 dried red chillies
- 4 bay leaves
- 4 cardamom
- 4 cloves
- 2 cinnamon
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 6 g turmeric
- 2 g red chilli powder
- 6 g kashmiri red chilli
- 4 g cumin powder
- 20 g salt
- 25 g sugar
- 400 ml hot water
- ½ tsp shahi gorom moshla
Method
- Marinate chitol machh with salt and turmeric. Set aside for 30 mins.
- Finely slice 75 g onions; and turn 150 g onion to a paste. Roughly chop tomatoes; slit green chillies; and beat yoghurt until lump free.
- Heat mustard oil in a pan. We'll first make birista. For that, add the sliced onions and stir constantly on high heat until golden. Remove from the heat when they are still light in colour—they will continue to cook in residual heat.
- In the same oil, fry the fish pieces in batches, about 4 mins each side. Set aside.
- Add ghee to the oil in the pan. Temper it with dried red chillies, bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and cumin seeds.
- Add the onion paste and braise on low heat until brown, about 15 mins.
- Make a slurry of the powdered spices: turmeric, red chilli, kashmiri red chilli and cumin powder.
- Add it to the onions and continue braising until the raw smell of the spices goes away, about 10 mins.
- Add ginger paste and fry on low heat for 5 mins.
- Add tomatoes, salt, sugar and raisins, and cook until the tomatoes soften, 2 mins.
- Add slit green chillies and beaten yoghurt, and stir it in vigorously to ensure that it doesn't split. Braise until oil separates (3 mins).
- Add hot water to form the sauce. When it comes to a boil, lower the fish pieces, and bubble for about 8 mins.
- Turn off the heat and finish with a tsp of ghee and some good shahi gorom moshla.
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