Bhortas or bharta as we call it in pan India, are the quintessential Bengali food, a staple in Bangladeshi cuisine. They are the underdogs when it comes to festive recipes, because they are never part of the menu in any grand celebration. But in a day to day life, they are those things which brighten up any meal. Mustard oil is one of the main key ingredient in any Bharta to give it the required edgy taste and flavour. You will be surprised to know the wide range of bhartas prepared in any Bangladeshi home, basically anything and everything that you eat can be turned into a bharta form. In simple words it a mash of ingredients. And whatever is the star ingredient it can be either - fried, roasted, steamed, charred or boiled. Every method used gives a very distinct flavour to the bhorta.  Some of the bhorta examples - aloo bhorta, brinjal bhorta, egg bhorta, fish bhorta, cauliflower leaves bhorta, bottle gourd skin bhorta, tomato bhorta, prawns bhorta, lentil bhorta and even mango bhorta. So basically you get the drift. We can make bhorta out of even thin air :D. And we dearly love our bhortas, because they are just too yummy to resist.

I had some large pieces of Rohu sitting in my freezer for long. I had got these pieces of fish from a local village old lady and it turned out to be not so fresh. I realized after using a few pieces of them in a fish curry, so it was out of question to use them for fish curry again. hence I had just stashed them in the freezer and forgotten all about it. Originally I had intended to use them in ghonto or maybe even mooger daal, which has lots of spices and accompaniments which might be useful in subduing the taste of the fish. But I kept putting it off and then one fine day while scavenging into the freezer I saw these lying around. Holey Moley! What do I do with them - was the instant question again. Now that they are more dated I had to think even more hard to make them palatable. 

Lots of thoughts crossed my mind. Maybe croquettes. But that's too much of hard work for not so good fishes. Ghonto also didn't seem a good option anymore. That's when I remembered I can make them into bhorta or a fish mash. It was a super easy recipe which involved a handful of ingredients and a hearty one too. And mostly it was perfect to mask the taste and flavor of any fish whatsoever.

Finally when I made the bhorta it turned out lovely. The flavours of the garlic and spring onion totally masked any unwanted taste of the fish and I truly enjoyed it with my meal. So the final moral of the story - if you happen to have some dated fish and do not know what to do with them, make it into a bhorta. Believe me you will never regret it.