Steamed pangas (with spices)

UPDATE: This had turned out to be a catastrophe. The fish has a strong smell which I found rather revolting. Also, it was too oily for my taste.

UPDATE 2 : A Bangladeshi friend told me that oneshould make spicy curry out of Pangas, not steam it. The key to avoid the smell is : (1) add a lot of garlic and onion (2) add one whole leaf of lemon tree. And apparently it is one of the most delicious fish.

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Pangas is a fish I have never had before. It looks like boal which is a popular and cheap carnivorous catfish in Bengal (and south east Asia). After searching the internet to confirm I realized that this is something different and controversial. There are several fish under the same name. Apparently the one common in Bengal is yellow-tail catfish. However the kind I got from the local fishmonger looks more like the Vietnamese basa fish. The tail is not yellow but silver grey. And it is one of the cheapest fish in the shop. There seem to be serious concerns about this fish but this turns out to be propaganda.
After a bit of reading up I was in a dilemma about how to cook it. Boal is commonly cooked with mustard paste (Jhal). This is possibly because the fish itself is very bland and fatty. On the other hand, less fatty catfish like magur and shingi are considered very nutritious and easy to digest to be popular as diet for the sick, old, and children. Hence they are cooked with very little spice, usually just a dash of turmeric and cumin paste and a piece of green chilli. Although Pangas is supposed to have small amounts of fat, it felt really oily when I was washing it. But I was too lazy to do the mustard paste thing, it is hard to do with a mortar and a pestle, which is all I have for preparing my spices.
Ingredients:

• Pangas fish 600 g (I used cross sections of ~1" thickness (commonly known as Bengal-cut in Southern India, where local people usulally slash the fish), but I guess fillet should be fine, you just need to change the timings based on thickness).
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 onion
• 6 pods of garlic
• 4 dried chili (if you have green chili, use that in stead)
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 10 black pepper corns crushed

Procedure:

• Heat the oil in a pan (220 degree celsius on my induction heater until the you can see vapour coming from the oil)
• Add dried red chili
• Add chopped garlic pods
• Add onion
• Fry until the onion becomes white
• Layer the fish on top of the onion.
• Sprinkle the coriander and cumin powder and the crushed black pepper on top of the fish pieces and cover.
• Cook for 5 minutes on low heat (90 degrees celsius on my induction heater).
• Turn the fish pieces over and cook for another 5 minutes with cover on at low heat.
• The fish should be fully cooked by now and there will be some water released from the flesh. You can dry it up at high heat without cover or finish cooking here.

I am planning to serve this with white rice boiled with a piece of Tejpata and will update once I have the results.

Shuntki maachher charchari (dry curry of dried fish)

This is stolen from UB who is the best cook of Bengali food I have met so far (other than my Mom, of course). This is going to be vague as I have not tried it yet.

Take dried small fish (or shrimps, anything about 1-2" long)  and soak it in vinegar for some time (1-2 hr) - this helps in removing the stink of dried fish.

Boil some water and put the soaked fish into it (the water should be boiling hot) for a couple of minutes before draining it out.

Heat oil in a wok and fry the fish lightly to make it crispy and keep them aside.

In the same oil fry panch phoron (at least nigella seeds), chopped (long) onions, green chili (sliced lengthwise into to halves), chopped radish, chopped onion stalks etc (any vegetable that can can be crunchy when cooked).

Add a little water and cook till the vegetables are almost done and add the fish.

Cook for a few more minutes.

Chicken wings and rice with basil, thyme and honey

Ingredients:

1. Chicken breast quarters : 2 (~500 g)
2. Vinegar : 4 tblsp
3. Pepper corns: 6-10 (finely crushed)
4. Dry basil: 1 tbsp
5. Dry thyme: 1 tbsp
6. Honey: 2 tbsp
7. Oil/fat: 2 tbsp
8. Rice: 100 g

Procedure:

1. Boil a mixture of water and salt in a deep pot. Put the chicken into the boiling water so that it is entirely submerged. Take it off heat and let cool down for 10 minutes.
2. Drain the water. Marinate the chicken with the vinegar, pepper corns, basil and thyme for 10 minutes or longer.
3. Heat oil in a pan. Put the chicken (keeping the marinade with the juices aside) into it and cover. Cook for 1-2 minutes at high heat. Flip it and cook for another 1-2 minutes. 
4. Reduce heat to below boiling point (~90 degrees Celsius), add two cups of water and cook for at low until chicken is done (~20 minutes). Flip the chicken pieces midway.
5. Remove the chicken pieces and season them with honey and then pour a few tablespoonfuls of the juices over them. Now rinse the marinade with 1/2 cup water and add it to leftover juices in the pot. Add the rice. Add more water if necessary and bring to boil. Cook until rice is done.
6. Serve the chicken with the rice.