Pabda Fish Curry. Pabda Macher Kalonji Jhal. Bengali Fish Curry.

Clean your Pabda fish properly in running water and add salt, 1tsp turmeric.

Mix them properly and keep it aside.

In a pan take 2-3tsp of mustard oil and fry the fishes flipping both sides.

Keep them aside. Remember not to wash of the pan. We'll use the same pan later for our curry/gravy.

Now for the tempering of curry, you'll need half tsp of kalongi or kala jeera also known as Nigella seeds and green chilli.

And 1chopped onions.

In the same pan with 1/2th tsp of mustard oil add your kalonji and green chilli.

Once the crackling starts add your chopped onions to it.

Toss them for 1-2 minutes.

Meanwhile, keep a small piece of ginger and green chilli paste ready for the gravy. Remember not to add too many chillies as you had also added during tempering and later need to add chilli powder too. You can also skip chillies here if you don't want it to be too spicy/hot.

Once, the onion is soft add your ginger-chilli paste.

Toss them for few seconds.

Then add 1tsp each of salt, turmeric powder, half tsp of chilli powder and 1tsp of cummin/jeera  powder. You can also add Kashmiri Chilli powder if you don't want your curry to be spicy. The kashmiri chilli powder only adds color to the dish without making it too hot or spicy.

Stir till the oil starts separating and there's no raw smell from the spices.

Now, finely chop 2-3 red tomatoes. You can also grind them if you want.

Add to your fried onion and spices.

Mix them well.

And cover the lid for 3-4 minutes.

After removing the lid you'll observe that your onions,tomatoes and spices has blended together. If you don't see your tomatoes well blended please cover again for few minutes. Stir again once or twice.

Now, it's time to add water. The amount of water depends on the consistency of gravy you are looking for. I've added 1cup of water.

Mix it well and let it come to boil on high flame.

Now, it's time dip all your fried Pabda Fish into the gravy.

Dip all your fishes one by one, once your gravy starts to boil.

Let it boil by covering the lid for few more seconds.

And you are ready.

Finely chop few coriander leaves.

Sprinkle chopped coriander. 

Bring it to boil and your are done.

Serve hot with steamed rice or chapati.