Aloo Bhaatey Bhaath | Sahini Banerjee

I was born in a very humble Village in West Bengal, when winters still felt like winters, when lanterns lit our rooms and electricity wasn’t as prevalent in homes. Everything was done manually – fish was caught from the lakes and nearby rivers, potatoes and rice were harvested from our fields, and vegetables were grown either in our own garden, or in our neighbours’ gardens. It was here, where I was introduced to my favourite dish – an assortment of different elements that comes together beautifully.

I grew up in my maternal grandparents house. I didn’t understand it at the time, but growing up under my dadu and dimmoni’s influence, shaped my preferences in food, and the way I use ingredients to cook dishes even today.

My favourite dish isn’t a singular element. Rather, it uses various ingredients in their simplest form – rice is steamed to perfection, red lentils are cooked, salted and tempered with dry red chilies and cumin seeds, potatoes are mashed and treated the same way and fish fillets are marinated in turmeric, salt and mustard oil and fried till golden. But the crowning jewel of this dish, is the fish guts and entrails, what we call “machch er tel” or fish oil – cleaned and marinated in turmeric and salt, cooked in nigella seeds and mustard oil until the oil stops sputtering and placed on top of the rice.

Traditional Bengali cooking is defined by its simplicity and thriftiness. We don’t use a lot of spices to mute the flavours of our vegetables and meats. And we waste no parts of our food. While fish guts and entrails may seem alien, it not only tastes great but is also zero waste.

Aloo Bhaatey Bhaath

Method:

1. Pressure cook Masoor Dal, and potatoes. Masoor dal should not be too watery.
2. Boil rice till it is fluffy. You may use basmati rice or any white rice of your choice.
3. Marinate the fish in turmeric, salt and mustard oil and deep fry in mustard oil.
4. Treat the fish entrails with turmeric and salt. 
5. In 1 tbsp of mustard oil and 1/2 tsp nigella seeds, fry the guts until the fats have melted. It generally takes 10-14 minutes depending on the quantity you are cooking.
6. Add salt and phoron (hot oil, cumin seeds, dried chilli) to both mashed potatoes and the Daal.

Serve hot, and enjoy!

Watch this recipe here – Aloo Bhaatey Bhaath

Sahini Banerjee is a biologist, and a passionate home cook. She won the silver medal in her masters and went on to work in the Indian Statistical Institute as a research scholar for 4 years, on projects that dealt with increasing crop yield and an ISRO funded project on Bacteria in Zero gravity. She’s a published author in Taylor and Francis and Nature’s Scientific Reports. She started documenting the A to Z of Indian Foods beyond curries which has been viewed over 13 million times. For her work, she was featured in an interview by Pluc.tv, Buzzfeed’s Tasty, and her recipes have been featured in The Telegraph. Sahini wishes to further pursue her PhD in Agriculture to fight food shortage in India, and as a hobby wishes to tell stories about her Indian heritage to the world. Through her storytelling, she makes use of her passions for history, geography and chemistry to talk about her personal experiences, the Indian Middle class and Indian History.

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