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Recipes with dried fish

3 recipes that use dried fish, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Shutki bhorta, takes 30 minutes. It is most often cooked with green chillies, mustard oil and onion.

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Paknam

Paknam is a Meitei favourite from Manipur, made at home and sold at Ima Keithel market in Imphal: a thick gram-flour batter loaded with herbs, onion, chilli and small dried fish, wrapped in leaves, steamed and then roasted until the outside crusts. It is eaten with rice or as a snack. The mistake is skipping the steaming and roasting straight away, which leaves the centre raw. For a vegetarian version, leave out the fish and add chopped mushrooms and extra herbs. Chef's tip: rinse and soak the dried fish to tame its salt before mixing it in.

65 minIndianSnacks & StartersGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Hutki shira

Hutki is what Sylhetis call shutki, sun-dried fish, and a pot of hutki shira, a thin, soupy curry, is pure home cooking from Sylhet, Sunamganj and the haor villages, where fish dried in the dry season feeds families through the rest of the year. The broth is fiery with fresh and dried chilli and full of garlic, softened with chunks of potato, brinjal and sometimes tomato or shatkora, and it is ladled over plenty of plain rice. The smell of the dried fish is strong as it cooks, but it mellows into a deep savoury taste. Skipping the soak is the error that ruins it: unwashed hutki is gritty and far too salty. Buy dried fish from a busy, reputable Asian grocer, and choose pieces that are dry, firm and free of mould. Chef's tip: keep the broth loose; shira should be soupy enough to drown the rice.

50 minBangladeshiFishGluten freeSpicy
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Shutki bhorta

A bhorta lunch, half a dozen little mounds of mashed things around a plate of rice, is the heart of Bangladeshi home cooking, and the shutki bhorta is always the one people fight over. Sun-dried fish from Cox's Bazar or Kuakata is toasted until crisp and aromatic, then pounded or mashed with fried onion, garlic, red and green chilli and raw mustard oil until it becomes a rough, punchy paste, salty, smoky and hot. A spoonful is enough to flavour a whole plate of rice. Buy dried fish from a trusted grocer, choose pieces that are dry and firm with no mould or damp patches, and always wash and cook them. The mistake people make most often is burning the fish while toasting, which turns it bitter; keep the heat moderate. Chef's tip: small dried prawns or loitta shutki give the mildest, most beginner-friendly bhorta.

30 minBangladeshiChutneys & DipsGluten freeSpicy
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Goes well with dried fish