Basa Fish Curry Recipe (পাঙ্গাশ মাছের তরকারি)

When it comes to a fish curry, Basa fish is one of the delicious fish among all the river fishes. Basa fish is called Pangash mach (পাঙ্গাশ মাছ – bengali) in Bangladesh. This fish has a very different texture in itself which makes the curry tastes delicious. Basa fish curry is a very easy recipe to make for main meal. This recipe features with eggplant and potatoes with vanities of spices, although it can be made without eggplants.

Ingredients of Basa Fish curry

• 1 Big Basa Fish: Slice the fish same size. Clean it with water and salt properly.
• 2 Potatoes: Medium yellow potatoes are good to make curry.
• 1 Eggplants: Long eggplant is better to get good pieces to match the fish and potatoes. This curry can be made without eggplant.
• 3 Shallots: Any onions are good to cook. To get a thick gravy and nice color, it is better to use shallot onions. I have cut the onions thinly so that it takes less time to cook.
• Oil: For this recipe, I have used oil to fry the fishes and add a bit later to finish cooking rest of the curry.
• 1 tbsp Garlic ginger paste (each): It is a very essential ingredient to make curries.
• Spices: The main spices for any curries are – ½ tbsp cumin, cumin powder, coriander powder , red chilli pepper powder, turmeric powder.
• Salt: Salt has been used as needed for this recipe (cleaning fish, frying fish and the curry).
• Minced cilantro and green chilli: Green chilli is to add a bit spices. Minced cilantro is for the garnish.

How to cook the curry

Here are the ingredients to make spicy Basa fish curry:

Step 1: Firstly, clean the Basa fish properly with water and salt. After that, marinate the fish slices with salt, turmeric powder and red chilli pepper powder to fry on the pan.

Step 2: Wash the eggplant, onions and potatoes. And then cut the eggplant, potatoes, onions to prepare for cooking.

Step 3: Then, on a non stick pan, fry Basa fish pieces on the oil until it turns into golden.

Step 4: After frying the fish pieces, using the same pan and oil add one by one cumin, onion and salt. It might require adding a bit of oil to cook the curry.

Step 5: Once the onion is sautéed properly, add garlic ginger pastes, all the spices (red chilli pepper, turmeric, cumin, coriander powder, and salt) and a splash of water. Stir for awhile until and put the lid on.

Step 6: When the spices cooked well and the oil floats on top add potatoes and stir. Then add a bit of water to cook the potatoes.

Step 7: After the potatoes mixed well with the spices add eggplants. Also, add a bit of salt and water to cook well. Stir for a while and put the lid on to let it cook inside.

Step 8: You will notice that the vegetables are cooked well and the curry will start bubbling. Next step is to add the fried fish carefully. and put the lid on for few minutes.

Step 9: Lastly, add few green chilli and minced cilantro for garnish.

Step 10: Finally, it is ready to serve with warm rice.

Cooking tips

To make this delicious curry, it needs your love to cook it along with the following steps. When you are frying the fish, it is important not to deep fry the fish.