Bengali Dahi Maach
Tender pieces of tilapia are marinated with caraway seeds, turmeric, and cayenne pepper and then pan-fried until crisp and golden brown. The dish is finished with a yogurt curry enhanced by the spicy flavor of mustard seeds. The result is a great mixture of flavors and textures, and a simple way to prepare versatile tilapia.
Ingredients
Serves 6
Step 1
1. Mix together the turmeric, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and caraway seeds. Add the tilapia pieces and toss to coat. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
Step 2
2. In a blender, combine the yogurt and flour and set aside. Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mustard seeds and cook, stirring, until sputtering and fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and curry powder and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the cream and the yogurt mixture and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the sauce is thick, about 5 minutes.
Step 3
3. In a nonstick pan, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat. Gently fry the seasoned fish until crisp on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Add the yogurt mixture to the fried fish and simmer until fish is cooked through, about 5 minutes.
Step 4
4. Season with salt and serve hot, garnished with fresh cilantro.
How would you rate Bengali-Style Fish in Yogurt Curry?
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Reviews (7)
Back to TopDELICIOUS! But hey, anything with heavy cream can't be bad, right? It was a little rich, but I suppose one could use whole milk or evaporated. If you like Chicken Curry, you'll love this.
NCrabtree1
Hickory, NC
2/8/2014
我喜欢轻松的preparing this recipe the most. I cook Indian food regularly at my home but they tend to have a long list of ingredients and tons of dishes to be done afterwards. This recipe was just the right amount for both. This dish tasted fine it just needs a bit of salt to help bring out the flavors that the cream sauce tries to hide. One thing you have to remember about this dish is it's a Bengali Style recipe. Bengali food is different from the typical Indian(Punjabi)food we normally have here in the states. While I never had a curry dish this creamy when I was in West Bengal, it does remind me of flavors I once tasted in that region. I suppose that why it's Bengali Style. I really think adding salt was the key.
Abice07
3/28/2012
Funny how one reviewer says this is bland and one says the spices are overpowering! For me the spices were just right. I left out the caraway and used yellow onion and served over rice. I also cooked the onion mix longer than directed. I think it would be good with any bland white fish that is firm enough not to fall apart when frying and mixing with curry. Fast, easy and good leftover!
Splendid
Baltimore, MD
11/1/2011
Delicious, I found this recipe quick and easy. I had trouble finding black mustard seeds and substituted yellow instaed.
blueribs
halifax ns
9/4/2011
So, interestingly and unlike the other reviewer, I found this recipe to NOT be as flavorful as I was expecting. It was good, but not great. The only alterations I made was light cream for heavy cream, and yellow onion for red. I really like Indian/African/Thai too, but unfortunately don't cook it enough to know what I'd recommend adding to this dish. For someone with more experience in that type of cooking, I imagine this recipe could be a good base and a great recipe with some seasoning additions/alterations.
mwk7m
Washington, DC
8/26/2011
Prepared exactly as written. This dish was almost inedible. Served with Basmati Rice. The spices completely overpowered the tilapia. I worked for 1 hour on the prep, and have cooked many Indian/Thai/African curry-based dishes, and this one was just awful. Was expecting a sweet-hot-spicy dish (see recipe for Thai Red Curry Fish Stew). We took two bites and threw the rest in the disposal. Has the Epicurious staff checked this out before including in the website...no harm, no foul as 95% of the recipies I have cooked from this website have been winners.
cookininatl
atlanta
8/25/2011
I wonder what other fish would be good in this recipe? It looks good but we don't do tilapia.
katymccoy
Sacramento CA
8/17/2011
