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The dish does full justice to its name. The recipe requires a little more preparation but the results are well worth the extra effort, says Pushpesh Pant There are few things more alluring than a fish delicacy well turned out. Once the ‘problem of the bones’ is resolved—that puts many people off from fishy delights—only a little effort is required to dazzle guests and folks at home alike with variations on favourite culinary themes. Take the case of machchi korma. Qorma—to revert to the spellings preferred by the purists—is the process of braising the meat that has been marinated in curds with aromatic spices, imparting a delicate yet deeply satisfying flavour to the slow-cooked meat. Usually, one comes across qorma prepared with mutton or chicken. Fish that cooks in much less time, many feel, is not well suited for this treatment. The question of letting the machchali stew in its juices simply does not arise. More often than not, one is dished out fish curry—taree in myriad regional variations running across the entire gamut from Bengali sorshe to Govan/ Mangalorean Tamarind, chilly coconut gravies or fried plain, in ajwaini besan batter or draped in rawa. The Bengal repertoire does have an impressive rui kaliyai but that for us has never been enough. But as they say, one lives and learns. We have at long last encountered the missing link in the qorma chain and have no hesitation in testifying that the dish does full justice to its name. True, the recipe does require a little more preparation but the results are well worth the extra effort. Indrajit, our kitchen partner, has used this as the foundation for a stunning Piscean pulav—but that is another story.
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