Ilish Pulao (Hilsa Pulao)

Bengali new year is a big festival in Kolkata. In our childhood we used to celebrate the day by wearing new dresses, exchanging hugs and sweets, visiting shops that would distribute free snacks and sweets. Most households would make their signature dishes on this special day either with mutton or fish or luchi and so on. In my childhood, I remember my mom making fried rice and mutton curry, while my mother-in-law used to make mutton curry and pulao. I used to make pulao and mutton curry on this special day to continue the tradition of both houses. However, this time I thought why not make fish as we as a family like fish the most especially when my 5-year old suggested 'elish' (Hilsa). 

Some people like to cook hilsa pulao with coconut milk, while I like it without that.

Ingredients:

For Fish

Hilsa about 6 pieces

1/4th of a medium onion

1 tsp garlic paste

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tbsp yoghurt

1 tsp red chili powder

2 green chili

1/2 tsp corn flour

2 tbsp mustard oil

Salt and sugar to taste

For Rice

Any flavored rice, 80% pre-cooked, about 6 cups

1 tbsp garam masala

1 bay leaf

3 green chilies

2 tsp ghee

Recipe:

• Heat some oil
• Make a paste of the above mentioned ingredients for fish
• Add this paste and cook till oil leaves the paste
• Add water as required while cooking the spice paste
• Add the fishes and cook till fishes are done
• Take the fish pieces out and keep aside
• Keep cooking the residue of the gravy until water completely dries out and leaves oil
• Add ghee and the garam masala along with the bay leaf and the green chilis
• Add rice to this
• fry the rice for 10 minutes on low heat
• In a separate oven-safe bowl put rice and fish on layers 
• Preheat the oven to 400F
• Cook for 30 mins before serving