Fish - Hilsa

Being a land of rushing rivers and lazy, winding coastlines, India is bound to have its share of lip-smacking fish recipes. Since many of the cities that line the coast are predominantly vegetarian, the use of fish is both a biological necessity as it is a matter of taste.  

From the serene, coconut-laden coasts of Kerala to the turquoise waters of Bengal, the variety of succulent fish available is unbelievable. And the multifarious ways in which people cook their sardines, trout, hilsa and carps is simply amazing!  

The Hilsa

In Bengal, food, to put it quite simply, is a steaming bowl of fluffy, white rice, vegetable curry and a delicious bowl of Hilsa cooked to perfection! In fact, Hilsa is so common here that you could almost call it iconic of the Bengali cuisine.  

The Bengalis have devised more ways to cook their Hilsa than you can possibly begin to imagine. They boil, fry and steam the fish. They add an assortment of spices ranging from mustard paste to coconut paste or thick, creamy yoghurt and enhance the dish with greens or other vegetables. Whatever technique they adopt, their fish is cooked to delightful perfection. Every part of the fish barring the innards and the fins go into a variety of mouth-watering recipes. 

One of the delightful aspects of Bengali cuisine is their dislike for garlic and onion. While the rest of India believe in sautéing food with garlic paste and deep-frying onion till it turns a translucent golden color, Bengalis will have none of it. They rely completely on their ‘Ponch Phoran’ or mix of five spices to bring out the rich flavor and aroma of food. This applies to their method of cooking hilsa too. In most cases, the fish is marinated so that its tender juices are preserved while cooking.

West Bengal is so obsessed with the flavor and taste of hilsa that the state recently named it as the ‘Official state fish of West Bengal’. So, if you ever get an opportunity to try Bengali food, you know where to start!  

Fish plays a dominant role in the recipes along the coast. While the coastal areas of Karnataka pickle their dried fish, other places like Bengal and Maharashtra have a yearlong supply of different varieties of fish. That obviously means that seafood, particularly fish, is naturally one of the delicacies here.