I have always observed, everytime when me and my husband start chatting about our childhood days, a surprising spark appears in his eyes. Probably he can also see the same spark in my eyes. We love to talk about the houses we lived in. How rain patter made sound on our tin roofs. How we could almost touch the clouds, but we couldn’t. And how our mothers, grandmothers, aunts gathered together in the kitchen to make some special dish, unique to the family. Though from both ends it’s been a while we have visited our extended family, except for few who could thankfully made themselves visible owing to some fortunate circumstances like, residing in the same city or paying visit to the city for some or the other reasons. Whatever it is! Our hearts somehow fill with pleasures, whenever we find the little opportunities to discuss, or mere think about the days we spent with our cousins, or the days when often we could witness family get together.
I am sure on and off it happens with everyone, when for some fraction of seconds, we are ready to give up on all the present comforts of life, just to go back and embrace those good old days. And may be, there are some reasons that they are called ‘good old days’. Probably, these are the days which somehow connect us with our roots and our origins. These are the days which keep us rooted, and provide us a sense of identity, which otherwise we might lose in this fast-moving globalised world.
As we move ahead in life and we try hard to keep up the pace, the sense of emptiness slowly hits us. This is the time when smallest to smallest cue resembling our roots, may be in the form of festival or food, or even meeting someone from our hometown, provide the much-needed relief. And last week, the same kind of relief was experienced by me and my husband, when accidently he found out Shidol or Fermented Puntius Sophore or Pool Barb or Punti, while going through the items listed in Dry Fish Section, when making our weekly grocery orders.
The very word Shidol, is deeply rooted in our culture (people whose roots belong to Northeastern part of India and Sylhet district of Bangladesh), and is beyond a mere dish for us. The dry fermented fresh water fish is a medicine for our fever, is an identity to our genes, resemblance of the perseverance characteristic deep rooted in our culture (the process of fermentation is done to preserve the surplus fish during monsoon and to avoid fishing during breeding season. Also, the age-old unique fermentation technique was discovered, as sun drying food items for longer period is not feasible in these areas witnessing heavy rainfalls during monsoon). And most importantly Shidol is an emotion which we take with us wherever we go. This is the reason why I still hear the slurping sound from my father’s drooling mouth, whenever we talk about Shidol.
The most popular dish that we Sylhetis make from Shidol is Shidol Chutney. It is a fiery dish and even tender tongues of children are not spared from the fiery sensation when it comes to Shidol Chutney. Which means, if you want to taste Shidol Chutney, you better tame your tongue to make itself ready for the burning sensation. While having Shidol Chutney you can also make some minute observations about the organs residing on your face 🤓. Like water can come out simultaneously from multiple parts of your face, like ears, eyes & nose, and inhaling air for 15 minutes by keeping your mouth open can actually provide relief from burning sensation🥵.
Although the writer of the post which is me🙋♀️, is also considered intolerant to chillies. But in case of Shidol Chutney, the writer herself has made some unusual provisions 😜.
So here I am, proudly presenting the repice for Shidol Chutney.
Click here and don’t miss out the other mouth watering side dishes.
Recipe: Shidol Chutney Or Fermented Dry Fish Chutney
Preparation Time: Around 15 minutes Cooking Time: 1 hour 10 minutes Equipment Used: Container or Bowl to soak Shidol, Knife, Cutting Board, Wok & Spatula
Ingredients:
- 15 Shidol pieces or 15 pieces of fermented Puntius Sophore or Pool Barb or Punti
- 1 garlic or around 20 cloves of garlic
- 3 large onions or 4 medium sized onions
- 1 tomato
- 10 tablespoon mustard oil
- 1 and ½ teaspoon salt
- 12 green chillies
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
Method:
- Soak the Shidol pieces in water
- In the meantime, peel and chop the garlic cloves, peel and chop onions, chop the tomato and chop around 10 green chillies
- Now gently scrape away the scales from both sides of Shidol pieces by moving your finger from tail to head
- Drain away the water, fill the bowl again with water and keep the Shidol pieces soaked in water again
- Heat a wok
- Add mustard oil in the wok and heat the oil till slight smoke comes out from oil
- Fry the chopped garlic pieces
- Add chopped onion pieces and fry them till they turn golden brown
- Add the chopped tomato pieces, followed by 1 teaspoon salt, turmeric powder and green chillies
- Add the Shidol pieces, when tomato pieces are tender
- Stir continuously till moisture in the wok evaporates
- Add the water used for soaking Shidol into the wok
- Cook till water evaporates completely and fat separates
- Taste and adjust salt. I have added another ½ teaspoon salt
- Check the chutney and add more green chillies (chopped) as per your tolerance level
- Switch off the flame
Soak Shidol or fish pieces in water. Peel and chop the vegetables and keep the ingredients ready.
Gently scrape away the scales from both sides of Shidol pieces.
Keep the Shidol pieces soaked in water again.
Heat mustard oil in a wok.
Fry the chopped garlic pieces.
Fry chopped onions.
Add the chopped tomato pieces, followed by 1 teaspoon salt, turmeric powder and green chillies.
Add the Shidol pieces, when tomato pieces are tender.
Stir continuously till moisture in the wok evaporates.
Add the water used for soaking Shidol.
Cook till water evaporates completely and fat separates.
Adjust salt and green chilli. Switch off the flame.
Tips:
- Shidol pieces are soaked in water to scrape out the scales easily
- While soaked in water, Shidol emits oil. Hence utilise water while cooking chutney, as they will add flavour
- Add green chillies in parts, so that you can make the chutney fiery as per your tolerance level. However, expand your tolerance limit as much as you can, as the chutney should be taken fiery for the true experience.
- The number of green chillies will also depend on how fiery the green chillies are.
- Cook the chutney till the mix of garlic, onion, tomato and Shidol almost turn to paste
- While adding water, use the water from top of the bowl and leave the bottom part. As the water might have scales generally settled at the bottom of the container
