Bengali Fish Curry

Im trying to think and i guess ive never cooked anything Bengali yet. Well Bengali people are big fans of seafood and their cuisine has wide range of dishes that contain fish and prawns. The fish curry ive made for dinner tonight actually contains Surmai fish but due to the small range of seafood in Punjab, i picked Dome/Dom (pardon me i dnt really know how its spelled right) as its salt-water fish.

Ingredients::
500 gm fish pieces
1 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 cup whisked curd
3 tbsp onion paste
1 tsp sugar
salt, to taste
5 tbsp mustard oil

Spices:
1 bay leaf
1 tsp cumin seeds
3-4 green cardamoms
3-4 cloves
1/2 inch cinnamon

method:
1. Rub 1/2 tsp turmeric and salt on fish pieces and set aside for 5-10 mins
2. Put curd, ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder and 1/2 tsp turmeric in a bowl and mix well.
3. Heat oil in a frying pan upto smoking point and stir fry the fish pieces on both sides for 2-3 minutes. take them out of the pan and set aside.
4. Use the same oil for further cooking, pour it into a thick bottomed vessel and heat again.
5. Add bay leaf, cumin seeds, cardamoms, cinnamon and cloves. add onion paste after some seconds.
6. When the mixture turns light brown, add little bit salt and rest of turmeric powder. add curd mixture after some seconds.
7. Add water and sugar. when the gravy starts boiling, add fish pieces, stir gently, cover the vessel and turn off the gas after a minute.
8. Now leave it like this for 3-4 minutes and serve hot with steamed rice.

For most Bengali dishes, mustard oil is quite essential. If you just want fried fish for snacks then simply marinate the fillets with salt and turmeric and deep fry in mustard oil. Here double frying is not really necessary but doing it will improve taste and looks.