Aar Macher Kalia Recipe

Tangy, flavorful, and rich Bengali Aar Macher Kalia; a fish curry prepared with Aor aka Singara Fish. This is a must try recipe of Bengali Macher Jhol

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Course: Fish Curry

Cuisine: Bengali

Keyword: Aar fish curry Recipe, Aar maach Recipe, Aar macher jhol recipe, Aar Macher Kalia Recipe, bengali fish curry recipe, Debjanir Rannaghar

Prep Time: 15

Cook Time: 20

Total Time: 35

Servings: People

Calories: 399kcal

Author: Debjani Chatterjee Alam

Cost: Rs 400

Ingredients

5 pieces Aar Mach 500g
3 Potatoes
2 Onions big
1 tablespoon Ginger Paste
1 tablespoon Garlic Paste
2 Tomato
2 Green Chili
20 Raisins

For Tempering

2 Dry Red Chili
6 Clove
1 Cinnamon Stick
4 Green Cardamom
2 Bay Leaves

Spices

1 teaspoon Turmeric Powder
1.5 teaspoon Kashmiri Red Chili Powder
1 teaspoon Cumin Powder
1 teaspoon Bengali Garam Masala Powder
1 teaspoon Salt or to taste
1 teaspoon Sugar
4 tablespoon Mustard Oil
1 tablespoon Ghee

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Instructions

For this recipe, I use large pieces of fish, excluding the head and tail. You can see the specific cut (round) in the accompanying picture.
Begin with 5 substantial pieces of Aar Mach, each weighing at least 100g.
Marinate these fish chunks with ½ teaspoon of turmeric powder and ½ teaspoon of salt.
Allow the fish to marinate for 15 minutes before you start cooking.
While the fish marinates, soak raisins in warm water for 10 minutes.
At the same time, peel your potatoes. If you're using medium-sized potatoes, cut them in half. For larger potatoes, cut them into quarters, or leave baby potatoes whole.
Roughly chop one onion and blend another onion into a smooth paste.
Also, blend the tomatoes and green chilies together to form a paste.
Next, heat mustard oil in a pan until it becomes fragrant and changes color.
Gently fry the fish pieces on both sides. It's important not to over-fry Aar Maach, also known as Singara Fish, as this will make it rubbery in the gravy.
Instead, lightly fry each side for no more than one minute. Once fried, remove the fish chunks from the oil.
Season potato chunks with ½ teaspoon turmeric powder and ½ teaspoon salt, then set them aside.
Fry these potato chunks in the remaining oil until they are golden brown and halfway cooked.
Remove the potatoes from the pan.
Now, add half of the ghee to the oil. Heat the ghee and oil together with dry red chilies, cloves, a cinnamon stick, green cardamom, and bay leaves.
Once these spices release their scent, add both the chopped onion and onion paste.
Cook them on low heat until the onion changes color and loses its raw smell.
Next, add the ginger-garlic paste, followed by the tomato and green chili paste, and mix everything well.
Cook for at least 3 minutes, ensuring no raw odor remains.
Then, stir in turmeric powder, red chili powder, cumin powder, sugar, and salt.
Keep the heat at medium and stir constantly until the oil separates from the sides of the mixture.
This process will take about 5-7 minutes, and the mixture will also change color. If the mixture starts to dry out while cooking, you can add 1-2 tablespoons of water.
Add the soaked raisins and mix again.
Finally, pour in 2 cups of water, mix, and bring to a boil.
Add the fried potatoes and continue cooking them until they are tender.
This usually takes about 7-10 minutes over low heat, depending on the type of potatoes.
Once the potatoes are cooked, add the fried fish and gently mix everything together. Cook for another 2 minutes on high heat.
Finally, add the remaining Ghee and Bengali Garam Masala, mix well, and then turn off the heat.
Cover the pan and let the Aar Macher Kaliya rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Notes

Aar Mach is also known as Aor Fish or Seenghala fish.
Adding sugar in the curry is optional; you can leave it out. Its purpose is simply to balance the flavors.
If you want a lower-calorie fish curry, you can omit the ghee.
You can also choose to leave out the raisins, though many people enjoy their small bursts of sweetness in Macher Kalia.

Nutrition