A 3-Ingredient Fish Recipe from the Chakmas of Chittagong
The Chakma are an indigenous community from the Chittagong Hill Tracts of south-east Bangladesh. Raina Talukder shares a treasured family recipe for maach khola, a versatile dish from the Chakma community that can be cooked with fish or seafood or even pork.
As the first Chakma family to have migrated from Rangamati to Calcutta, my dida watched her daughters slowly lose the language she had spoken all her life. As she tried to keep up with a new set of customs and conventions, her kitchen transformed into a sanctuary that she fiercely guarded. Now 75 years later, it's her food that her family carries forward, as the last symbol of their inherited identity. Especially her khola. This is the story of our family’s favourite fish recipe.
Khola is our way of one-pot cooking. We have khola bhaat, khola maach, and khola pork — cooked similarly, with minimal ingredients and a single trusted pot. Everything mixed in together and simmered gently to ultimately be served with our beloved staple, rice. The humble jhum (or shift cultivation) origins of the Chakmas (an indigenous group that migrated from Bangladesh) in the hilly terrain of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, meant that our diet incorporated fresh produce in plenty, with very straightforward techniques — mostly boiled and steamed, with minimal spices, relying heavily on foraged herbs and chillies.
Dida made her khola a little differently. Instead of sealing it altogether, she layered the ingredients. Her immigration to the land of potato patronage introduced Bengal’s favourite vegetable to our tribal palate. The dearth of resources, and the need to add volume to a dish was how aloo entered Dida’s kitchen. With only one earning family member and six mouths to feed, she devised her way to add more food to the family’s plates. Now, we can’t imagine maach khola without potatoes, even though Chakmas still make the dish without it.
This is one dish we all crave, with fish of varying sizes — mourala (Mola Carplet), bele (Goby), Parshe (Mullet), and more. We celebrate Ilish or Hilsa in the monsoons with the same recipe. One where the fish takes centrestage, and the dish tastes different every season.
RECIPE FOR MAACH KHOLA
Ingredients
4-5 pieces of freshwater fish like rohu or catla (or you can use prawn as well)
1 large onion, finely sliced
5-6 slit green chillies
1 tsp of turmeric powder
1 large potato cut in French fries like strips but thinner and shorter (optional)
Method
Gently rub a pinch of turmeric on the fish. Allow to rest for a few minutes.
Lightly sauté the fish in a little mustard oil, until a slight glaze appears. This should be a quick minute only. Set the fish aside.
Heat more mustard oil (if required) and add in the potatoes. Let them shallow fry until they start turning golden. Now add the chopped onions and green chillies, and stir fry for a few minutes till the onions turn translucent.
Add the fish and about a cup of water. Cover and allow to simmer for 10 minutes.
Follow with half a teaspoon of turmeric powder and salt to taste. Allow to cook.
The final consistency should not be too watery. Finish with chopped parsley (fuji, as we call it in Chakma) or fresh coriander. Remove from the heat and allow to rest with the cover on for a few minutes, to bring all the flavours together.
Serve with rice and a wedge of lime.
*The same recipe works wonders with pork as well with the added step of marinating the meat with onion and green chilli paste.*
Raina Talukder is a former journalist turned F&B professional who is easily distracted by baby animals and unfazed by copious amounts of coffee.
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