Fish Kalia Recipe - How to Make Fish Kalia

In Fish Kalia Recipe, the fish commonly used are river fishes like – Rohu or Katla, which should be fresh and mature. The weight of fish needed for this preparation should be ideally at least 4 to 5kilograms or above. The Freshness of the Fish can be judged by studying its eyes and gills.

The eyes of the fish, which has died not too long time back can be judged from its convex (bulging) and lively appearance. The eyes of the fish that has been dead for some time would have a dull and concave (sunken) appearance. Similarly, the gills in a fresh fish would be bright reddish compared to the blacker complexion in a fish where decomposition has set in. In a fish where the rot has started, the ventral portion of the body would be very tender.

So, it is obvious that for Fish Kalia Recipe preparation fresh fish is required and one which has been dead for a long time should be avoided. In Bengali Rohu Fish Kalia Recipe, it is usually the ventral portion of the fish which is used for the preparation but other parts of the body can also be used for the Fish Kalia recipe. 

Those who want to know how to cook Fish Kalia should know that Fish Kalia Recipe can be of many different types, depending on the ingredients and the preparatory method used, though it would be important to mention here that Onion is the commonest ingredient, that is used in all different methods. Underneath we have described one of the simplest methods of how to prepare Fish Kalia at home, using basic ingredients that are easily available in your neighborhood markets.

The dish can be easily prepared by using the Fish Kalia Recipe step by step described below. For the ease of our readers, we are describing the preparation method under two headings – the ingredients used and the description of the procedure, step by step.

What are the Ingredients Used in Fish Kalia Recipe?

The ingredients used in Fish Kalia Recipe are -

1. Fish (Rohu) – 300 grams (cut into pieces)
2. Mustard Oil – ½ cup for main preparation and another 1 ½ tablespoon for marination
3. Onion – 1 of large size or 1 ½ of medium size
4. Garlic – 7 to 8 cloves
5. Ginger – ½ inch long stick
6. Black Salt – 1/4^th teaspoon (or as per taste) for main preparation & 1/4^th teaspoon for marination
7. Sugar – 1 teaspoon
8. Water – 1 ½ cup
9. Garam Masala Powder - 1/4^th teaspoon
10. Turmeric Powder – 1/4^th teaspoon for cooking and 1/8^th teaspoon for marination
11. Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder – ½ teaspoon
12. Coriander Powder – 3/4^th teaspoon
13. Cumin Powder – ½ teaspoon
14. Whole Cumin Seeds – 1/4^th teaspoon
15. Whole Cinnamon Stick - ½ inch long (crushed)
16. Cloves - 5 to 6 in number
17. Bay Leaves – 2 in number
18. Green Cardamom – 4 to 5 in number
19. Black Cardamom – 2 to 3 in number
20. Poppy Seeds - ½ teaspoon
21. Black Pepper – 7 to 8 in number
22. Curd – 1/4^th cup or Tomato – 1 of large size (either can be used)
23. Coconut Milk – ½ cup
24. Ghee (of good quality) – 1 tablespoon

How to Make Fish Kalia at Home?

All those who want to know how to prepare Fish Kalia can do so easily by following the Fish Kalia Recipe step by step described below. Here we have described Rohu Fish Kalia Recipe, but any other suitable fish can also be used. It has to be mentioned that substituting the variety of Fish wouldn’t change the preparatory method of the Fish Kalia Recipe.

• To begin with, wash the fish pieces (with scales already removed) thoroughly with tap water and drain out the water completely from the fish pieces and then keep the clean fish pieces aside.
• Next put 1/4^th teaspoon of turmeric powder, 1/4^th teaspoon of salt, and 1 ½ tablespoon oil over the fish pieces and rub them evenly on the pieces and leave the contents to marinate for at least 20 to 25 minutes. This step is known as the Marination step of the Recipe of Fish Kalia.

• Next take whole Cinnamon sticks, Cloves, Green Cardamoms, Black Cardamoms & Black peppers in a pestle and just break them into pieces and keep them aside.
• Cut the Tomato into small pieces. Instead of Tomato, Curd can also be used; which is beaten nicely after keeping in a bowl, which is kept aside. Here we have used Tomato in the Fish Kalia Recipe.

• Soak the Poppy seeds in a little water and keep it like that for at least 10 minutes. Later sieve it by using a sieve. Then the soaked Poppy seeds are transferred to a grinding stone & ground to a smooth paste form. If extra water is required for this purpose, then sprinkle a little water on the Poppy seeds paste and then keep it aside.

• Next make a paste of Garlic and Ginger with help of a grinding stone/Grinder and keep it aside in a bowl. Cut Onion into very small pieces and keep them separately.

• Now put a non–stick pan/Karahi on a medium flame burner. Put Mustard oil in it for frying the fish pieces & allow it to warm. Once the smoke starts to come out from the oil, it indicates the oil is now ready for frying of fish pieces.
• Now slowly, 3 to 4 fish pieces are put in the oil present in the non-stick pan/Karahi for frying. A small gap should be maintained between each fish piece, present in the non-stick pan/Karahi, for proper frying. As soon as fish pieces come into contact with oil, a cracking sound is emitted, as water in the fish pieces starts to come out. The sound disappears when the side being fried gets adequately fried.
• Now the fish pieces are turned over on its side and the other side is also fried in the same way. However, care should be taken to not excessively fry the fish pieces, as it will give a burnt taste and the fish piece would also get very hard. Later take out the fried fish pieces and keep them aside on a clean plate. Like this, all the fish pieces are fried.
• Now keep only around 2 tablespoons of oil in the non-stick pan/Karahi and the rest amount of the oil (in which the fish pieces were fried) is removed from the non-stick pan/Karahi and kept separately. In the leftover amount of oil in the non-stick pan/Karahi, put the crushed mixture of cinnamon stick, Green Cardamoms, Black Cardamoms, Black Peppers, and Cloves together with Bay leaves and fry for 1 to 2 minutes.
• As soon as a pleasant aroma starts to come out from the preparation then at once add Cumin seeds to the mixture, followed by Ginger + Garlic paste, and stir the preparation. Now reduce the flame of the burner and change it to a low flame.
• Once the pungent smell of Garlic and Ginger is no longer felt coming out from the preparation, then Onion pieces are put into the oil in the non-stick pan/Karahi for frying, and keep on stirring the preparation till the Onion pieces changes to a golden-brown color. Then add the Poppy paste to the preparation and stir the mixture for another half a minute.
• Next add Turmeric powder, Cumin powder, Coriander powder, Ghee, and Tomato pieces all together to the previous preparation and fry it nicely till tomato pieces become soft, then add Kashmiri chili powder to the preparation.

• If somebody wants to use curd instead of Tomato then curd can be used at this stage. However, if curd is used then the mixture should be continuously stirred, otherwise, the curd can get curdled and the preparation won’t be proper.
• Once the smell of curd disappears then add water to the contents followed by salt and sugar. The contents are allowed to boil for 10 minutes, while the non-stick pan/Karahi is kept covered by a lid.
• In the next step of the Fish Kalia Recipe, the burner is switched off after 10 minutes, and then test the content of the preparation for salt and sugar taste. If needed extra salt and/or sugar can be added according to taste preference and the contents of the non-stick pan/Karahi are again boiled & stirred over medium flame for another 2 to 3 minutes. Later the burner is switched off.
• Next the Karahi/Non-stick pan is taken down from the burner. After that mash the whole mixture on the Karahi/Non-stick pan with the help of a masher or with the help of a ladle’s roll.
• Later, put the Karahi/Non-stick pan again on a medium flame burner. Add Garam Masala powder and Coconut Milk to the Gravy mixture.

• Next slowly put all the cut fish pieces, into the liquid present in the Karahi/Non -stick pan and allow it to boil/cook for the next 5 minutes while the contents are kept covered by a lid.

• Allow the contents to cook for 5 minutes after that switch off the burner. Now mix all the contents present in the Non-stick pan/Karahi uniformly, with a spatula (taking care not to break the fish pieces), and again cover the contents with a lid.
• Allow the contents to rest for 10 to 15 minutes, after which the contents can be shifted to a serving bowl. This brings us to the end of Fish Kalia Recipe Bengali style. The final dish prepared by Recipe of Fish Kalia, should not contain a lot of gravy or it should not be very dry. The right preparation should be intermediate.

• Now the ready dish can be served to friends or family members along with Fried rice or Meetha Pulao, or Jeera Rice.

Coconut milk is an important component in the preparation of the dish, which gives a special taste. It is easily available in the market. However, for some reason, if it is not available in the nearby market it can be easily prepared at home.

For this grate ½ cup full of Coconut and then put it in a grinder along with 1 cup of water. After the Coconut is ground then, squeeze the whole Coconut milk mixture produced, through a piece of cloth. Coconut milk thus collected is thick and tasty and can be used in the Bengali Fish Kalia recipe as described above.