← Recipes

Ilish Polao

Fragrant Gobindobhog rice cooked in hilsa-scented oil and layered with soft curd-marinated hilsa — a showpiece for special days.

Ingredients

• 6 hilsa steaks
• 300 g Gobindobhog rice
• ½ cup thick curd
• 1 large onion, made into paste
• 1 tbsp ginger paste
• 8 green chillies
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 green cardamom
• 4 cloves
• 1 small cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp sugar
• ½ tsp turmeric powder
• 5 tbsp mustard oil
• 2 tbsp ghee
• 2 tbsp fried onions (beresta)
• salt to taste

Method

1. Wash the rice, drain and spread it out to dry for 30 minutes.
2. Mix the curd, onion paste, ginger paste, turmeric, 1 tsp mustard oil and salt. Coat the hilsa and marinate 15 minutes.
3. Heat 4 tbsp mustard oil in a heavy pot. Add the hilsa with its marinade and 4 slit chillies. Cook covered on low 8 minutes, turning once. Lift out the fish; keep the gravy aside.
4. In the same pot, heat the ghee. Add bay leaves, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon, then the rice. Fry 3 minutes till the grains turn glossy.
5. Add 3 cups hot water, sugar and salt. Cover and cook on low 12 minutes until the water is nearly absorbed.
6. Pour the fish gravy over the rice, lay the hilsa on top with the remaining chillies and fried onions.
7. Cover tightly and cook on the lowest flame (dum) for 10 minutes. Rest 5 minutes before serving.

Tip: Gobindobhog is short-grained and fragrant. Don't stir after the water goes in or the rice turns sticky.