Maacher Jhal is one of the easiest and flavourful Bengali fish recipes. For this curry, I have used Pabda fish or butter catfish. It is a flavourful freshwater fish. Although I prefer cooking fish curry in mustard oil, you can use white oil too.

Coat the cleaned fishes with turmeric and salt and keep them in a strainer. This method keeps the fish dry and prevents them from spluttering in oil.

Heat oil in a frying pan and shallow fry the fishes. Keep the pot covered while frying the fishes as they might splutter. Once the fishes are shallowly cooked, reduce the oil in the pan to only 1 tablespoon.

Add Kalo jeera/ nigella seeds to the oil. Add a little red chili powder to the oil and fry it for 30-35 seconds. This helps in adding the color to the dish. Next, make a paste of turmeric powder and half a teaspoon of cumin powder with water and add it to the oil. Cook off the spice till the oil separates. Next, add enough water to the pan to make the curry. Add salt to taste. Put a few whole green chilies to the curry. Once the curry starts to boil, add the fried fish and simmer it for another 5-8 mins. Since this a very delicate fish, it only takes very little time to cook. You can adjust the timings if you are using a different fish. Add chopped coriander leaves at the end and rest it for sometime before serving it with hot rice.