Keyword: authentic bengali fish curry, bengali shol fish, India Lost Recipe, shol recipe
Servings: 5people
Author: Samrat Roy Chowdhuri
Cost: ₹250
Equipment
1 Wok and spatula
1 Knife and chopping board
Preparation and serving bowls
Ingredients
600gshol fish fillet
500glau or bottle gourd
To Fry the Fish Fillets
3tspmustard oil
1/2tspturmeric powder
1/2tspsalt
To Prepare the Lau Shol Dish
2tspmustard oil
1/2tspcumin seeds
4pcgreen chilisread notes
1/2tspturmeric powder
salt to taste
1tspginger paste
1/2tspcumin powder
1cupwater
2tspsugar
For Second Tempering
1tspmustard oil
1tspcumin seeds
1tspradhuniwild celery seeds
Instructions
Peel the bottle gourd and dice it in medium sized pieces, keep aside
Slit a few chilis vertically and keep aside
Marinate and Fry the Fish
Marinate the fish with turmeric and salt and keep aside for 10 minutes
In a wok, add mustard oil and allow it smoke on medium flame
Add the fish fillet one by one, while ensuring that the wok is not crammed. Depending on the size of the wok, 3-4 pieces should be enough
Fry on each side for a couple of minutes. Flip over to fry both sides
Take out the fried fish fillet and keep separate
Cooking the Lau Shol
In the same wok, add mustard oil. Keep the flame on medium
Once the oil smokes, lower the flame and add whole cumin seeds and slit green chilis
When it splutters, add the bottle gourd
Saute on medium flame for around 5 minutes, ensure to stir it from time to time
Add turmeric powder and salt, and stir it in the curry
Cook covered for another 5 minutes
Bottle gourd releases a lot of water. Uncover and saute it for few minutes till the water has dried off
Add ginger paste and cumin powder. Mix uniformly and saute for a couple of minutes till the raw flavor exists
Add water (preferably hot water) and give it a nice stir (See Notes)
Now add sugar (optional, recommended. See notes) and allow it to come to a boil
Check for seasonings and adjust if required
Drop in the fish pieces one by one. Cover and allow them to simmer on a low flame for 5-6 minutes
Uncover. Pour this into a large container
The Second Tempering
In a wok, add mustard oil and allow it to smoke. Ensure that flame is medium
Add cumin seeds and radhuni (see notes)
As soon as they start spluttering, add the lau shol curry from the container
Give it a nice mix with the spatula
Add in a couple of slit green chilis. Cover
Switch off the flame
Uncover after 5 minutes and serve hot with rice
Notes
It may look like you are adding a lot of green chilis, however, please adjust based on your tolerance for heat levels. Personally I love the aroma from the green chili, while the hybrid chilis we get in the markets in Bengal these days have little heat profile, prompting me to add more
Sugar is optional but highly recommended. Bottle gourd or lau is a vegetable that gets an enriched flavor profile from adding a bit of sugar. Avoid if you have health concerns
The second tempering is a very classic technique of Bengal for many dishes. Depending on the dish, the whole spices used for tempering also changes
Before adding radhuni to the wok, crush them by rubbing within your palms. These help in releasing the aroma from the spice
The lau shol is not a dry dish entirely. The end result has three distinct components - well-cooked gourd, shol and a gravy of thin consistency (also called jhol in Bengali)
If you have the fish head, fry and add it to the curry for better flavors. You can fry it along with the other fish fillets and add it 5 minutes before the fried fish fillets are added back to the curry
You should not use dry red chilis, tomatoes, corinader powder, red chili powder for this dish