Macher Dimer Bora/Wada/Pakoda (Roe Fritters)

Day 57 of Lockdown 

The week has been going much smoother now. I got my first big basket delivered groceries after two months yesterday. Though they are yet not delivering till your doorstep, but still delivering till the society gate is also good enough. 

Amidst the covid situation Bengal and Orissa had to battle out a new peril - the Amphan cyclone yesterday. Massive destruction happened all over. I can see my friends updating about their respective areas on the social Media. My mom who is now in Kolkata also described how bad it was for all those hours when the storm was raging. Most homes and apartments are inundated. Getting through the phone was also not easy as there is service disruptions all over. I cant even imagine what the poor folks are going through. Its just that somehow 2020 feels quite jinxed. We are days away from June and don't even know where half of the year disappeared. I just hope things become less taxing for us and we get time to recover from all that is happening.

The week has been super hectic for me in terms of office work. previously our office times used to be restricted to 9 hours. But now since we are working form home there is no boundary between work hours and personal time. Rather there is no personal time at all. From 9 it has gone up to 14 hours on an average daily. But we are not complaining much, as we all know we are grateful to have a job in these trying times.

Getting time to cook among all this is another challenge. So most of the time I do some pre-preps on the weekends for the week ahead. And in between just make something which is not labor intensive. Have had this nice Rohu eggs lying in my freezer for sometime now, so decided to make a quick batch of Macher dimer bora. 

Macher dimer bora/Fish egg pakoda/fish roe is a very popular food accompaniment in Bengal and are considered as a culinary delicacy. This is mostly prepared during the rainy season as during that time the fish have eggs. The most popular ones are the eggs of Rohu and Hilsa. The eggs are also sold separately for this two fishes.

For all the vegetarians or the rest of India, the concept of fish eggs might be very weird. I know this because once I was talking about macher dimer bora with my office colleagues most of whom belonged to central and western India and one of the guys was wide eyed when he learnt fish produce eggs 😂. As he overcame the shock, the next question he asked was how do you cook the fish eggs, make into an omelette with each egg? And I was at a loss of words. Then I thought, that's right, people who didn't have a clue as to how these things look will try to associate with the only thing we identify as eggs. When I explained to him the entire thing, he was like wow I learned something amazing today :). But this thing is not so rare. In fact we all know about a much more glamoured version of fish roe which is known as caviar. But that is very expensive, while the normal fish eggs are damn cheap. They come along with the fish at times.  I hope you enjoy this simple and quick recipe which peps up your weekday lunch.

Preparation Time : 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Serving : 20-25 pieces

Ingredients :

• Fish Egg - 1 cup ( I had Rohu)
• Onion - 1 medium
• Green Chilli - 2-3
• Coriander Leaf - 1/4th cup, chopped finely
• Ginger - 1/2 inch
• Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
• Red Chilli Powder - 1/4 tsp
• Rice Flour - 1 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Mustard Oil 

Procedure: 

1.  Wash the fish eggs carefully under slow running water, so as to not wash away all the eggs along with the water. Drain the water and keep it in a mixing bowl.

Note: The fish vendors usually separate the fish egg pouch and give it to you separately. 

2. Chop the onion and chilli and add it the to bowl. Add grated ginger root and chopped coriander leaves. Add turmeric, salt, rice flour and chilli powder. Mix everything well. It will look like a thick cake batter

Tip1: It is always better to use your hand for mixing this, as doing it with a spoon might leave lumps. However do not squish the eggs, gently break the membrane with fingers and allow the egg to mix with the rest of the ingredients.

Tip 2: Question is how to measure the salt here as u would not like to taste the raw batter. So what I do is, I add salt a little less than i feel is required for the batter amount. Then fry a tiny pakoda and taste it. If salt is less in the fried version then i add the salt as needed.

Tip 3: Rice flour is added to make a crispy pakoda. A few suggest to add gramflour or besan but I feel that tampers the taste of the pakoda.

3. Heat oil in a frying pan. We are going to shallow fry the egg pakodas on medium flame. Now once the oil is hot, take spoonfuls of this mixture and put it on the pan, just in the shape of pakodas. Let one side cook till they are a little browned then flip and repeat the process.

Tip 3: If you are not sure whether the pakodas are cooked to the core, fry one pakoda break it in the middle and it should not be runny inside, but totally cooked. If you find it still soft then increase the frying time. Also you can cover and fry that will lower the cooking time.

4. Drain excess oil on a kitchen towel and serve

Serve it as a side with rice and dal or it also makes up for a good snack item.

Do try this out and tag me (@curriesnstories07) on Instagram on your photos whenever you try the recipe and I will give a shout out to you.