Dried Fish Bharta

Dried Fish Bharta is a traditional Anglo-Indian recipe from the 1860s for a classic mash of pounded dried fish blended with onion, chillies, lime juice and mustard oil. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Anglo-Indian version of: Dried Fish Bharta.

prep time

10 minutes

cook time

15 minutes

Total Time:

25 minutes

Additional Time:

(+30 minutes soaking)

Serves:

4

Rating:

Tags : CurryChilli RecipesFusion RecipesBritish Recipes

This is a traditional Anglo-Indian recipe redacted from the volume THE INDIAN COOKERY BOOK: A Practical Handbook to The Kitchen in India (author unknown), published by: WYMAN & CO., HARE STREET CALCUTTA circa 1869. The recipe comes at the end of the section on PORTUGUESE CURRY (VINDALOO OR BINDALOO), so this is a Vindaloo curry paste or a curry paste from Goa.

Original Recipe

97.—Dry Fish Burta

Prepare onions, chilies, and lime-juice as before. Take a part of the Arabian dried beckty and well
broil it; remove all the bones, and pound the fish to nearly a powder; mix it thoroughly with a
tspful of mustard oil, and add the onions, chilies, and lime-juice.

95.—Potato Burta

Take a moderate or middling sized white Panta onion; remove the outer coats, and slice very fine;
then slice or cut up two hot green chillies, and squeeze over the onion and chilies the juice of a fresh
lime: allow to soak. Take eight or ten well-boiled potatoes, half a tspful of salt, and a
tspful of good mustard oil; bruise the potatoes down with a large silver or plated fork, adding,
when they are half bruised, the onions and chilies, with as much only of the lime-juice as may be
agreeable: mix all well together with a light hand, so that the potatoes may not cake, and yet be well
and thoroughly mashed and mixed.

Modern Redaction

Dried fish bhartas remain a feature of Bengali cuisine. They are typically made of dried pomfret and I have substituted this fish in the recipe below.

Ingredients:

1 white onion, peeled and sliced thinly
2 green chillies, chopped
juice of 1 lime
2 dried pomfrets
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp mustard oil

Method:

Mix the onion and chillies in a bowl. Pour over the lime juice set aside to soak for 30 minutes.

Open up the dried pomfret and remove as many bones as you can. Place under a hot grill (broiler) and cook for 10 minutes, turning over half way.

Remove any additional bones you see then break the fish up and put in a mortar. Pound to a paste, removing any more bones as you see them.

Mix the fish paste with the onion, chilli and lime juice mixture. Season with salt then work in the mustard oil.

Serve

Find more Victorian Recipes Here and more Curry Recipes Here. For the original version of The Indian Cookery book see my The Indian Cookery Book main page.