Hilsa cooked in pumpkin leaves - a traditional recipe of Bengal

It is monsoon in Bengal, and the sky is overcast, drizzling frequently. Early mornings are dark from the cloudy skies and incessant downpours. Perfect ambience for a cup of tea or coffee and getting cosy. But for a Bengali at heart like me, it's an opportunity to hop onto the local fish market in search of the silver catch of the season, the dearest ‘Ilish’ or Hilsa. Every wet market of West Bengal is now flush with the supply of the silvery Ilish, sourced locally from the sea towns. With the first drizzles of the monsoon, thousands of trawlers venture into the deep seas at the confluence of the river Ganges in search of the ‘Ilish’. But Bengalis now love to falsely believe it is a fresh catch from the river Ganges being very much aware of the fact that shoals of ‘Ilish’ no longer enter the Ganges in great numbers due to the changing water conditions.

‘Ilish’ captured in the river Padma and its tributaries are bigger in size and the fishing in Bangladesh is more organized. The best catches from that part, Bangladesh, are first stored in cold storage and then exported to various foreign countries. Some of that variety also lands up in this part of Bengal at a much higher price but at a later stage.

Be it from anywhere, ‘Ilish’ is always the love at first sight for a true Bengali. Combined with pumpkin leaves, here’s ‘Ilish’ in another legendary cuisine –

Ingredients:

Pumpkin leaves – 10-12

Ilish or Hilsa fish – 6 pieces

Salt – 2 tsp to taste

Turmeric – 2 tbsp

Red chilli powder – 2 tbsp

Black mustard – 2 tsp

Yellow mustard – 2 tsp

Desiccated coconut – 2 tbsp

Green chilli – 4

Curd – 2 tbsp drained

Mustard oil – 2 tbsp

Instructions: 

Apply 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp turmeric and 1 tsp red chilli powder on the fish and let it marinate for 15 minutes.

Clean the pumpkin leaves and cut any stems to the leaves.

In a mixer make a paste of mustard seeds black and yellow with ¼ tsp salt, desiccated coconut, green chillies and 2 tbsp of water.

In a bowl add the curd and beat it well. Add the mustard, coconut paste and 1 tsp each of turmeric, red chilli and 2 tbsp of mustard oil. Mix it all.

Now, lightly hammer the pumpkin leaves so that the veins of each leaf get flat.

Now take one leaf, add a spoonful of the paste at the centre, place one fish piece on top of it, add 2 green chilis and another spoonful of the paste over it and fold the leaf into a packet, if required take another leaf and fold tightly from all sides. Tie snugly with a string.

Finish six packets similarly with six fish pieces.

Now steam the packets on a double boiler for 10 minutes at the most until the leaf softens. Halfway in between turn the sides so the fish cooks from both sides.

In another process, heat a skillet and add 2 tbsp of mustard oil. Place the fish packets on it and cover it with a lid. Let it cook in low heat for 8-10 minutes. Halfway in between turn the packets so the fish cooks from both sides.

After the cooking is over take off the heat, cut the strings and take them off.

Unfurl the leaves and serve with steaming rice. The cooked pumpkin leaf is edible.