For The Love Of Patla Macher Jhol

Patla Macher Jhol. You have to be a Bong. Or grown up in the lap of a Bong. An all time favourite, there's something delightfully charming about this most delicately flavoured fish dish.  The best part of the Patla Macher Jhol is that it comes without any fanfare. No hawwwua. No delusions of grandeur. No rich, oily gravy cradling the fish fillets. What you see is what you get.

For the love of fish!

 Fish is our staple diet. But unlike many other communities where fish is cooked in one or two ways, the creative Bengali has unleashed most of his creative prowess in the kitchen. The most common fish...read cheapest (though not any longer)...used to be rui...or chara pona (baby rui).  From Rs 40 a kilo in my childhood days to Rs 160 now, the rohu has travelled a long way. The peti-gada cut or the Bangali cut as is  known now in Mumbai, means that the whole fish is beheaded and de-tailed. A sharp cut lengthwise on the body block, ensures two halves, the peti on one side and the gada on the other. This is breeding time for the fish. So chances are there would be a rich bounty of fish eggs in the peti. While that is a delicacy by itself,  the fish eggs means the peti has thinned and will not be as tasty or succulent as it could.

The rohu enters the Bengali kitchen every morning. Generally portions are one piece per person. Now the preparation method of the day. The first step is to check out the menu of the day. A typical Bong home would have parboiled rice, dal, bhaja (a fried something to go with the dal), a dry sabji (could be a saag or a chorchori), a wet sabji (like a cauliflower-potato gravy) and then the fish. The preparation of the day for the fish would depend on the other dishes. If the other dishes are going to be mildly flavoured, then the fish would be richer in taste\. If the other items are richly flavoured, then the fish would be mildly flavoured.  How and what are the parameters decided would require several posts of explanation, and maybe we'll get to that later, but the current point of discussion is the 'patla macher jhol'.



    Pic Capt: Patla Macher Jhol--alu, begun, bori diye....

Definitely in the comfort food category, the patla macher jhol is fish cooked in a thin gravy. So? What makes this so special? Right. Loads of Indian gravies, when cooked at  home and not on a restaurant stove, are thin. But 'thin' as a term is relative. The patla macher jhol is positively anorexic. Just water and fish. And a little flavouring. That's it? Yep. That's it. But made correctly, it can make one salivate. Of course like every other dish, the Bong has learnt to make this in a dozen different ways too. But believe you me, the end result for all is d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s!

Patla Macher Jhol: Methodology

So how is the patla macher jhol made? Well, the basics: Say you are making a rui macher jhol for four. Which means four medium sized rui pieces. Now wash the fillets, smear with haldi and namak and keep aside. Heat a kadai, add just one teaspoon of oil; once the oil heats up, add a quarter spoon of kalonji (kalo jeere in Bangla, onion seeds in English). Then pop in a few (maybe 4?) slit green chillies into the oil. Remember the flame should be on sim and the chillies should be slit. Or else you'll have them popping furiously causing grievous harm to your eyes or face. Once the chillies are nicely sauteed but not charred, add roughly four cups of water, salt to taste and a pinch of turmeric. you could also add one tsp chopped coriander leaves. Then add the fish fillets, increase the flame to medium, and cover the kadai with a lid. Don't even look at it till the water reduces to half. Once the water is reduced to half the quantity, uncover the kadai and now let the jhol boil in full glory. Check for taste and reduce the watery gravy till about half a small katori for each fillet.

The trick in making this jhol is that the fish cooks thoroughly in the water while flavouring it at the same time. The kalonji and chillies add the zing. In this preparation, the fish is not fried. Alternatively, you can saute the fish in a pan separately and add to the jhol. But believe you me, if cooked perfectly, nobody will be able to make out the difference.

Simple? Absolutely. This is the basic patla macher jhol. A thin watery gravy which nonetheless can leave you hungering for more. The same preparation can be used for pabda fish. Anamika, a regular at BMK, enters the restaurant with the query..."Pabda macher kalo jeere kacha lonka patla jhol hobe toh?" Anamika is a Punjabi, married to a Bengali, but fully appreciates this simple dish thanks to her ma-in-law.

Jhol Permutations

Now, the variations. The same jhol, with a dash of the famous Bengal nimbu, Gandharaj Lebu, tastes absolutely divine and is just perfect on a hot summer afternoon. Again, if it's pabda or tyangra, you could take a tsp of strained mustard paste and add it to the jhol a little before taking it off the gas. Yum!!!

The other variations. A little chopped onions, a clove of garlic, a tsp of red chilli powder, tsp of pureed tomato...all in the same jhol or each one separately as an add on to the basic gravy. With every addition, the jhol gets tweaked a bit and tastes different.

Apart from the kalonji-green chillies combo, there's one combo that's my favourite. Actually this one came to our home through my ma's maika. The tempering: white jeera, adrak and  half a tsp of aniseed (saunf) paste. Then raw bananas, cut lengthwise, (not more than one raw banana in a  gravy for 4)  to be added to the chaunk and sauted. Then the water and the rest follows. Absolutely out of this world.

But you have to be familiar with this taste a bit I think to like it. The first time we tried it at the resto, we got quite a few crinkled noses!

The veggies though can be added to the basic recipe too. The macher jhol hot favourite veggie is the potato. It could also have brinjals, cauliflower, ridge gourd. Not all together maybe but potato and any one veg. Add to this a few fried dal vadis and it's a dish to kill for! Pucca! Incidentally, the photograph above is of a patla macher jhol with  brinjals, potatoes and vadi or as the Bongs would say, bori. It is also slightly richer than the basic PMJ since frying the bori takes a fair amount of oil and this fat is released into the jhol when it is simmering on the stove.

The Patla Macher Jhol can be made in with other seasoning as well. Like panch phoron (5 spices) or radhuni (celery seeds) instead of kalonji.

Point is, any which way you make it, if made correctly, it's a hit!