Ilish Bhapa Recipe (Bengali Style)
Recipe to make tasty Ilish Bhapa easily at home. Simple ingredients, instructions, and equipment to prepare Bengali-style Ilish Bhapa easily.
Equipment
- 1 Induction Cooktop
- 1 Cooking Pan/Pot
- 1 Steel Tiffin Box
Ingredients
- 4 pieces Hilsa fish/Ilish
- Mustard oil
- 2 tsp White mustard
- 2 tbsp Black mustard
- 1 tsp Poppy seeds
- 5-6 Green chilies
- 2 tbsp Sour Curd/Yogurt
- ½ tsp Turmeric powder
- Salt to taste
Instructions
Prepare the fish
- First, wash the Ilish fish.
- Place the fish on a plate and add salt and turmeric powder. Coat the pieces of fish with the salt and turmeric powder and keep them aside.
Arrange fish in a steel tiffin box
- While the fish is resting, soak the mustard and poppy seeds in a bowl.
- After around half an hour, take a sil batta/mortar and pestle/blender and add the white mustard, black mustard, poppy seeds, two green chilies, and a little salt.
- Make them into a fine paste and keep them aside.
- Now whisk the sour curd/yogurt well until creamy.
- After that, place the fish in a big steel tiffin box.
- Add the paste of the spices and whipped sour curd.
- Add salt to taste and combine everything nicely. Coat all the pieces of fish with the creamy paste and curd.
- Arrange the fish inside the tiffin box and drizzle 2 tsp Mustard oil over the fish.
- Slit the green chilis from the middle and place them on the pieces of Ilish fish.
- Put the lid of the tiffin tox tightly and keep it aside for 10-15 minutes.
Prepare the Ilish Bhapa
- Now boil water in a pan or a large pot. Place a stand in the pot on which the tiffin box can be placed.
- Keep the amount of water accordingly so that the box is half submerged in water.
- When the water boils, place the closed airtight box on the stand and cover the pan/pot with a lid. Keep the flame on medium.
- Let the fish steam for 15 minutes in the boiling water.
- After that, take the tiffin box out of the water and keep it for 6-8 minutes. This will help the flavors to infuse well.