‘Doi Maach’-- Fish in Yoghurt Sauce

This is a traditional Bengali fish preparation. ‘Doi’ means  yoghurt and ‘Maach’ is fish. Fish used is the usual fresh water fish either Rahu or Katla.Choose a big fish weighing about 5 kg. Often the fishermen or women who sell these fishes do not expect you to buy the whole fish, therefore you can buy one kilo or 2 kg. For this preparation you need to select portions from the stomach of the fish.

Ingredients:

• 6 big pieces of fish.
• 2 tablespoon yoghurt
• 1 medium size onion ground to paste.
• 1 teaspoon ginger paste
• 2 cloves garlic ground to paste
• ½ teaspoon cumin seed powder
• 1 tablespoon coriander and cumin seed mix powder
• Kashmiri chilli powder to taste

Method:

• Wash the fish well. Apply salt and about ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder to the fish and marinate the fish in yoghurt for 2 hours.
• Heat 2 table spoon oil in a vessel. Add 1 bay leaf (chopped into two pieces),1 green cardamom, 2 cloves, 1 small stick of cinnamon and ¼ teaspoon cumin seed to the oil.
• Soon after adding the above mentioned whole masalas, add the onion paste and the ginger paste. Stir well.
• Add garlic paste, coriander and cumin mix powder and a bit Kashmiri chilli powder.
• After stirring well add the pieces of fish. My mum prefers to add only the fish and not the marinade.
• Add salt to taste – take care while adding salt for the fish has already been marinated in salt--- and a little water. Cover and cook till done.
• At this stage add half cup beaten yogurt and half teaspoon of sugar. Stir well and serve hot.

If you prefer green chillies to red chilli powder, do not add chilli powder instead garnish with chopped green chillies.

I have sent this to My Sweet and Savory --- Let's Do Brunch.

Update

This dish was cooked by my mother who always used pieces from a big fish, that is how Doi Maach is traditionally cooked.
I, however, cooked it by using pieces from a one and a half kg fish and I found it tasted quite good. Here is a link to my video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=GBuEk-OtSTs