The incredibly bony virtually inedible gada of the prized chitol maach rests on a kansa thala in front of Maa.
It’s a mellow winter morning. The truant sunlight casts fast-changing silhouettes on the newly white-washed kitchen wall. A calendar, Annapurna doling out rice to a mendicant Shiva, flutters merrily in the carefree breeze.
Maa is seated on her wooden pniri (low wooden stool). Her starched cotton saree. And trademark red bindi. Her hair neatly done in a bun. Shes preparing chitol maacher muitha this morning and its an arduous process to say the least.
She takes a knife, it catches an aberrant streak of the mischievous morning sun and glitters ominously, and makes a deep incision along the length of the chitol gada. With surgical precision.
Maa starts scraping one of the chitol slices now with the knife.
Each knife roll, cold and impersonal, clinically plucks yet more flesh from the now-slowly-disappearing slice, Maa, with a deft move of her finger, clears the knife-blade of the fish pulp (I shudder nervously every time her finger slides over the threatening metal), deposits the pulp into a kansa bowl and returns to scraping the chitol. Disciplined movements of the knife and the mound of pristine white chitol pulp keeps growing. Slowly but steadily.
The chitol slice now reduced to a bony carcass, but hardly anything ever gets wasted in Grandmas kitchen. The chitol carcass and the skin shall go into a delicious chaler chorchori (but let’s keep that story for another day)
Decades have flown by.
The starry eyed teen is now a grown-up.
But still just as attracted to the sights and smells of the kitchen, enamored by the theatrics and enticed by the alchemy.
Shaken out of my reverie, I turn my attention to the pulp of chitol my husband has returned from the market with. Scraped. Cleaned. De-boned. Inviting me to start preparing the chitol maacher muitha.
I reach out for the masalas.
Get laboring on the fish dough.
Chitol Maacher Muitha. Quintessentially Bengali. Dumplings of chitol maach. Cooked in furiously boiling water. Lovingly cut into whatsoever shapes you desire. Fried in ghee. (I took the liberty to swap the ghee for oil though). Stewed in a sinful onion-tomato gravy perfumed with green cardamom. Yet another from Maa’s repertoire of classics.
And if this is not decadent, nothing is !!!!
Enjoy !!
Chitol Maacher Muitha (Chitol Dumplings in an Onion Gravy)
Ingredients
For the chitol muithas
- 250 g chitol gada scraped and deboned, gada portion
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/2 tbsp onion paste
- 1 tsp ginger paste
- 1/4 tsp garam masala
- salt to taste
- oil for frying
For the muitha gravy
- 1 potato cut into cubes
- 2 onion coarsely ground to a paste
- 1 tsp ginger paste
- 1/4 tsp garlic paste
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp red chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 2-3 bay leaves
- 1 one inch cinnamon
- 2 green cardamom
- 2 cloves
- 3 tbsp mustard oil
- 1 tsp ghee
- 1 tsp sugar
- salt to taste
Instructions
For the chitol muithas
- Take the scraped and deboned chitol pulp in a bowl, add the turmeric powder, onion paste, ginger paste, garlic paste and garam masala powder. Mix well.
- Boil water in a deep bottomed pan. Once the water has started boiling, grease you hands with a little oil, take small amount of fish dough in your greased palm and shape it as shown in the picture (about 1.5 inch length and 0.5inch thickness) and very gently slide it into the boiling water. Repeat the same for the rest.
- Cook for about 2-3 minutes till the fish is just cooked and as they start to float up, take them out quickly with the help of a strainer. You do not want the fish to be overcooked.
- Heat oil in a pan, when smoking hot, shallow fry the fish balls till light brown. 3-4 minutes I would reckon. Do not over-fry the dumplings. You do not want the muithas to be chewy. Keep aside on a kitchen absorbent towel.
For the muitha gravy
- In the same pan, fry the potatoes till light brown. Keep aside on a kitchen absorbent towel.
- Add the remaining oil to the pan, temper with crushed cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaves. Allow the spices to release their aroma.
- Now add the onion paste, cook till the onions are cooked and the paste turns a golden brown. Add the ginger and garlic paste, cook for another 3-4 minutes.
- Dissolve the turmeric powder, red chilli powder, coriander powder and cumin powder in a little water to form a smooth paste. Add to the pan, cook till the masala starts to release oil.
- Add the fried potatoes and 11/2 cups of warm water, bring to a gentle simmer. Cook till the potatoes are tender.
- Sprinkle in the sugar and salt, gently add the fried muithas, cover and cook over a low flame for 4-5 odd minutes till the gravy has thickened.
- Adjust seasonings, finish with a generous dollop of ghee and a hearty sprinkle of garam masala powder. Serve hot with rice.
Notes
- You can also shape the spiced chitol pulp to a flat disc (about 1 inch thickness) and very gently slide it into the boiling water.
- Cook for about 10-12 minutes till the fish is just cooked and a skewer inserted into the fish comes out clean. You do not want the fish to be overcooked. Remove from heat, gently take out the fish from the water. Allow to cool. Cut into 1 inch squares.
Very authentic recipe of chirokalpremero muitha.Thank you.