Doi Katla (Fish with Curd)

Doi Katla (Fish with Curd) -

This is a famous Bengali dish made of fish and as the name suggests, it is usually prepared by the Katla fish. You can also try the same recipe with other fishes too. Best served with hot steamed rice.

Prep Work:

Heat Vegetable Oil in a frying pan

Chop a medium sized onion in large chunks and then saute it until it is soft, pink and translucent. Now cool and make a paste.

Next in a bowl, add about 1/2 cup of thick yogurt. To it add

1/2 of the onion paste

1 tbsp of fresh ginger paste

a pinch of turmeric powder

1/4th tsp of sugar

1/4th cup of water

Beat well

Clean the fish pieces and lightly rub with salt and turmeric. Keep aside for half an hour.

Start Cooking:

Heat some more Oil in Kadai/Frying Pan.

Add the coarsely pounded whole garam masala

Elaichi or Cardamom~ 5

Laung or Cloves~ 5

TejPata or BayLeaves~ 2

Dalchini or Cinnamon Sticks ~ 1” stick

When they start sputtering add the remaining onion paste. Add about 1 tsp of sugar and fry the onion paste till the oil separates.

Add the fish pieces. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp of Kashmiri mirch and saute until the fish pieces lose their raw color. Don't overcook or fry the fish too much. It will cook in the gravy

Next add half of a large tomato chopped into small pieces and about 5 slit green chillies. You can also add halved grape tomatoes.

Now take the Kadai/Frying Pan off the heat and give it a couple of minutes to cool.

Add the beaten yogurt/curd and mix with the fish. If you add the yogurt directly when the utensil is on heat the yogurt may curdle so you need to do this.

Put back the Kadai/Frying Pan on heat.

Add salt as required .Add about 1/2 - 2/3 cup of water at this point. depending on how much gravy you need, you might need more or less water.

Simmer on low heat till the gravy comes to a boil. Let it simmer till the gravy is thick and smooth and the fish is just flaking apart. The texture of the gravy should be silky smooth because of all that yogurt. Note: the gravy will not dry off totally but will be thick and not watery

Finish off with a little ghee if you wish and a little Garam masala powder. Serve with white rice.