Recipe: At Home Bhapa Ilish

Recipe: At Home Bhapa Ilish Delicious, fresh and tasty.

Bhapa Ilish. "Bhapa Ilish" means Steamed Hilsa where "Bhapa" depicts for Steaming. Traditionally Bong ladies used to steam their Hilsa in a "Stainless Steel Tiffin Box" while making the rice in a Handi (Ha-n-ri). That actually is the ideal process of making Bhapa Ilish.

Even though it looks very polished, it is a fairly easy recipe to execute, requiring few ingredients, no special technique, and very little time.

Ilish or Hilsa is a seasonal fish.

The fish is mostly available during the monsoons and that too in very limited quantities.

You can cook Bhapa Ilish using 9 ingredients and 5 steps. Here is how you cook it.

Ingredients of Bhapa Ilish

1. Prepare 1/2 Kg or 500 gms. of Hilsa Fish cut into "Bengali Cuts".

2. You need 3 tbsp of mustard seeds.

3. It’s 3 tbsp of poppy seeds or khus-khus.

4. You need 2 tbsp of mustard oil.

5. It’s as required of Water.

6. It’s to taste of Salt.

7. It’s as required of Turmeric powder.

8. Prepare 2 of slit green chillies.

9. You need 1 tbsp of hung curd (optional).

That explains why it is so expensive.

Like everything, hilsa too has it's favorites.

Ask any Bengali about the best hilsa in India, and he or she will point you towards Bangladesh.

How to make Bhapa Ilish Recipe (Steamed Hilsa) To begin making the Bhapa Ilish recipe, wash and tap dry the steaks of hilsa with a kitchen towel and set aside.

Bhapa Ilish step by step

1. Firstly take a bowl, add the mustard seeds, poppy seeds and soak it with 3 tbsp of water for an hour. Now wash all the fish pieces properly. Apply some turmeric & salt all over it and coat them well. Keep it aside..

2. After 1 hour, add the mustard & poppy seeds, half tsp turmeric powder, salt, curd into a blender, add 2 tbsp of water and blend it into a smooth paste. Rest the mixture for about 15 mins. or else if you put this mixture directly for cooking, just after grinding, the mixture will become bitter in taste. So resting becomes an important part of this dish…

3. Now take a steel tiffin and put the fish pieces in it. Now add the mustard paste to it, now add some salt, if required, turmeric powder, 1 tbsp mustard oil, slit green chillies and mix everything well. Now again pour a tbsp of mustard oil. Cover the tiffin..

4. Take a cooker, add some water into, place a stand inside it. Now place the tiffin over it. Now remove the rubber and whistles from the cooker & cover the cooker and steam it on a low flame for 25 to 30 mins. Let it cool down completely then carefully open the tiffin..

5. Your "Bhapa Iilish" is now ready. Serve it hot with steam rice…

Blend until the paste is smooth.

Bhapa ilish can be prepared in different ways.

The age old practice is to wrap the fish inside the gourd leaves or banana leaves, and the neatly tied packets will be then left inside the huge pots of freshly steamed cooked rice with steams trapped inside.

And that's how my grandma used to make the ilish bhape.

Today we will learn famous traditional Bengali fish recipe Ilish Bhapa or Bhapa Ilish.