Shorshe Ilish

Bengali hilsa steamed in a ground mustard paste with green chilli and raw mustard oil

Origin: Bengal, India & Bangladesh

From the journey of Mustard.

This is the dish Bengal is judged by, and it is the most complete demonstration anywhere of mustard used as a sauce rather than as a seasoning. Ilish, the hilsa, is a shad that runs up the Padma, the Ganges, and the Hooghly from the Bay of Bengal in the monsoon, and it is the most prized fish in the region on both sides of the border. It is also one of the boniest fish anybody eats voluntarily, laced with fine intramuscular bones that Bengalis negotiate with an ease that alarms visitors, and it is oily in a way that makes it perfectly suited to an aggressive sauce. The sauce is shorshe bata, mustard seed ground wet into a paste. It is not a seasoning stirred into something else; it is the entire cooking medium, thinned only with water and raw mustard oil, and the fish is steamed in it. Around it there is almost nothing: turmeric, salt, green chillies, and that is the dish. Grinding the mustard is where it goes wrong, and every Bengali cook knows the rules. The seed must be soaked first. It must be ground with salt and green chilli rather than on its own, because both suppress the bitterness that grinding otherwise releases. It should be ground wet, in short bursts, never long enough to heat up. And a mixture of yellow and black seed gives a better balance than either alone. A carelessly ground paste turns acrid and no amount of anything else will rescue it. The oil is used twice: cooked into the sauce and again raw, poured over at the end. Raw kachi ghani mustard oil is powerfully pungent and clears the sinuses, and that final spoonful is not a garnish but the signature of the dish.

Ingredients

Fish

6 pieces hilsa (ilish) steaks, about 2.5 cm thick, or use mackerel or pomfret
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp salt

Mustard Paste

3 tbsp yellow mustard seed
1 tbsp black mustard seed
4 whole green chillies, two for the paste and two left whole
0.5 tsp salt, for grinding
4 tbsp water, for grinding

Cooking

6 tbsp cold-pressed mustard oil (kachi ghani)
0.5 tsp ground turmeric
0.5 tsp nigella seeds (kalonji), optional
150 ml warm water
1 tsp salt, or to taste

Method

Rub the fish steaks with the teaspoon of turmeric and the salt and set aside for twenty minutes.
Soak both kinds of mustard seed in warm water for thirty minutes, then drain.
Grind the drained seed with two green chillies, the half teaspoon of salt, and just enough water to move the blades, in short pulses, to a smooth wet paste. Do not let the grinder run continuously.
Pass the paste through a fine sieve if you want a smooth sauce, pushing it through with the back of a spoon and discarding the husk left behind. Loosen with a little water to a pourable consistency.
Heat the mustard oil in a wide pan until it smokes, then take it off the heat for a minute to cool slightly.
Return to a medium heat, add the nigella seeds if using and the two whole green chillies, and let them sizzle for thirty seconds. Stir in the half teaspoon of turmeric.
Pour in the mustard paste and the warm water, add the salt, and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook for three to four minutes; the sauce will thicken slightly and lose its raw smell.
Slide the fish steaks in in a single layer, spoon sauce over them, cover, and steam over a low heat for eight to ten minutes, turning once very carefully halfway.
Take off the heat, pour over a final tablespoon of raw mustard oil, cover, and let it stand for five minutes before serving with plain steamed rice.

Notes

Hilsa is sold frozen by Bengali and Bangladeshi grocers and is worth seeking out; there is no true substitute for its oiliness and flavour. Mackerel is the closest widely available fish, and pomfret or a thick salmon steak both work with the sauce even though they change the dish. The bones are part of eating hilsa and are not removed. Warn anyone unfamiliar with it. Mustard oil is sold in some countries labelled for external use only, on account of its erucic acid content. Where that applies, use a neutral oil for the cooking and accept that the raw finishing spoonful, which is the point, cannot be reproduced. The same mustard paste is the base of a whole family of Bengali dishes: shorshe bata diye begun with aubergine, shorshe chingri with prawns steamed in a banana leaf, and shorshe murgi with chicken. Make a double quantity of paste and use it within two days.

The Gastrographer

Name: Shorshe Ilish
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 1 h 20 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: India & Bangladesh
Ingredients: 6 pieces hilsa (ilish) steaks, about 2.5 cm thick, or use mackerel or pomfret; 1 tsp ground turmeric; 1 tsp salt; 3 tbsp yellow mustard seed; 1 tbsp black mustard seed; 4 whole green chillies, two for the paste and two left whole; 0.5 tsp salt, for grinding; 4 tbsp water, for grinding; 6 tbsp cold-pressed mustard oil (kachi ghani); 0.5 tsp ground turmeric; 0.5 tsp nigella seeds (kalonji), optional; 150 ml warm water; 1 tsp salt, or to taste

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control