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Samrat Roy Chowdhuri

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Hello! From Chuchura (in Hooghly District) and a foodie, I created this blog with a mission to preserve the food of the land; with a message to encourage and promote clean and real food. I hope you enjoy and gain out of this blog, happy reading!

Looking forward to read and hear your feedback.

Name me one recipe that brings out the flavors of the ilish in the open and it has got to be ilish macher tel jhol.

In Bengali cuisine ‘tel jhol’ literally translates to ‘oily gravy’, but do not worry it is not so. In more real sense, it basically means a gravy based dish which does not use a lot of spices.

Ilish Macher Tel Jhol (ইলিশের তেল ঝোল) is thus a minimalist hilsa fish recipe cooked in the Bengali style.

Before we proceed further, a word of caution is a must.

Save Ilish – An Earnest Request

A good ilish should weighs above 1.5 kg and it is a serious pocket pinch.

If you are extremely fortunate, you may even get to witness hilsa weighing above 2 kg, but this is expensive and anything above this hurts the pocket.

However, these days it is extremely difficult to get hilsas of this size because of over-fishing. Smaller sizes of the fish are caught using finer nets and sold in the market to fulfill the high demand.

Bangladesh, for example, has banned the practice of catching smaller ilish.

Finallyfoodie.com requests you to reverse this trend and practice the following:

Do not buy an ilish fish that weighs less than 600 grams
Do not buy hilsa between the months of October and February

Of course these days, the fish is stored in the cold houses for months which hurts the flavor but it still tastes good.

How to Make a Good Ilish Macher Tel Jhol with Begun – Points to Remember

For a beginner, making a good ilish tel jhol is easier than a bhape ilish. Here are a few points to help you sail through with better flavors and easier execution.

Choosing the Right Fish for Ilisher Tel Jhol (ইলিশের তেল ঝোল)

You have already read in the previous section that you must not buy ilish that weighs below 600-700 grams.

For good results, the bigger the size the better the flavors. Hence you may also consider a one time pocket pinch for a one-kg sized fish.

In Bengal and India, most of the fish available in the market has been deep into ice for weeks and months.

There are three distinct categories when it comes to where the fish has been netted – Bangladesh (Padma), Ganga (or Hooghly River) and local rivers.

Padma is most flavorsome and hence most expensive. Ganga Ilish ranks a distant second while the hilsa form the local rivers are something I do not recommend.

Your fish may have no or some roe (eggs) in it, or large amount of roe. While we all love the ilish macher dimer bora, the more the roe content in a fish, the lesser is its flavor quotient.

Hence always choose a fish that has little roe only.

Cleaning the Ilish or Hilsa

This may seem like a no brainer, but so many of us get it wrong. And in the process lose out on the flavor.

According to books written on Bengali cuisine in the early 20th century, hilsa’s blood is hilsa’s oil (read ইলিশের তেল). In Bengali we may say – “ইলিশ মাছের রক্তই ইলিশ মাছের তেল”

While this may not sound nice to your ears, you cannot ignore age-old wisdom.

These books also mention very specifically how to clean ilish for this ilish macher tel jhol or for any hilsa fish recipe.

Scale the fish first, and wash it thoroughly in clean water. After this is done, cut the fish into pieces of your desired shape.

Do not wash the fish after you have cut into pieces.

Of course, you may not be comfortable with this idea. So just splash the pieces with some water. Do not go overboard with washing them clean, as you will only be stripping the steaks off its oil.

Interested in a Lost Ilish Recipe?

Try the Ilisher Ullash, a recipe from the 1900s of undivided Bengal and was a regular feature in the Rabindranath Thakur household, as documented by his niece, Pragyasundari Devi.

The Right Shape & Size for Ilish Macher Tel Jhol

For this ‘begun diye ilisher tel jhol’ (ইলিশ বেগুন বা বেগুন দিয়ে ইলিশের তেল ঝোল), cut the fish into pieces of round shape as shown in the images of this recipe.

Ilish Machh Bhaja — Lightly saute the ilish steaks to get a golden color and do not over fry them to red

Remember – every part of hilsa is edible.

A Two Spice Recipe Only

This ilish macher tel jhol is a minimalist recipe that uses just two spices – nigella seeds (কালো জিরে) and turmeric powder.

Nigella seeds have a nutty and smoky flavor and is used during the tempering phase, while turmeric powder is used while whipping up the watery thin gravy.

Since these are the only two spices used, the relative quantity of the nigella seeds and turmeric powder is relatively highly than the other recipes.

Serving the Ilisher Tel Jhol with Begun

Serve the dish with only and only steaming white rice. This is a traditional, deeply rooted Bengali dish and hence no experimentation is recommended.

Let’s get cooking now!