Blue Gill Maccher Tok-If you teach a man how to fish...

..you should teach him how to gut it too. It should not be upon the spouse to clean and cook it too. A few weeks back we were invited to friend's place. Their backyard faces a lake which is swarming with blue gill.After an evening of fishing at the lake behind our friend's house , my dear husband decided to bring it home and eat it too. We have had such fishing related adventures in the past, but the fish involved was slimy in this case. After a thorough scrub and gutting , the fish looked pretty appetizing.

I decided to make a tok with the fish. Tok is a sweet tamarind sauce and people from a certain part of West Bengal can make tok from fruits, vegetables and even fish. When I was newly married my MIL talked about how her MIL used to cook Fish Tok on a daily basis. I have cooked tok from Rohu, Hilsa but never a Blue Gill. So I decided to try it out considering everything has a first time. The fish being small, I cooked them whole and the Blue Gill Tok was delicious at the end of the meal. Ingredients:

Blue Gill Fish 9-10

Turmeric 1 and 1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

Panch Phoran 1 tsp

Tamarind paste 1 tbsp

Sugar 2 tbsp

• Wash and clean the blue gill and apply a tsp of turmeric and a tsp of salt and keep them aside.
• In a shallow fan fry the blue gill in some vegetable or canola oil until they are brown on both sides. Please do not use olive oil as that might overwhelm the flavor of other seasonings.
• In the same pan add a tsp of oil and add panch phoran and let them splutter.
• Add the remaining turmeric and salt and add 2 cups of water.
• In the water add turmeric paste and stir it till the paste dissolves.
• Bring the sauce to a boil and add the sugar.
• When the sugar dissolves add the fish and cook till the sauce is to a sticky consistency.
• Add a tsp of mustard oil at the end( optional).
• Serve this at the end of a meal with boiled white rice.

The tok turned out to be delicious even though the fish was too bony and didn't have much flesh on it. You can also cook it with other fish but remember it needs to have some bones and skin on it. Otherwise the fish will fall apart.