Bhetki Paturi

Bengali, with paturi technique (paat = leaf) recorded in 19th-century Bengali kitchen manuals though clearly older — banana-leaf cookery is documented across pre-modern South and Southeast Asia. Bhetki, prized for its mild flesh and few bones, became the upmarket fish for paturi; village versions use ilish (hilsa) or even prawns. The dish is served at weddings and festive bhog meals.

Bengali; paat means leaf and the technique runs older than 19th-century kitchen manuals. Two mustards do different jobs — yellow paste hot from sinigrin, brown mustard oil pungent on its own. The leaf must be flame-passed first or it splits and weeps.

A fillet of bhetki (Asian sea bass), pale and flaky, wrapped in a dark-green banana leaf charred at the edges. Open the parcel: mustard paste — pungent, sinus-clearing — coats the fish, with green chili, turmeric, and a slick of mustard oil. The leaf scents the steam, the steam cooks the fish. Eaten with plain rice; the leaf is not eaten, but you'll want to scrape it.

Two mustards do different jobs: the paste is yellow mustard ground with green chili and a little water, hot from sinigrin; the oil is brown-mustard expressed oil, with its own pungency. Together they push past the leaf scent. The banana leaf must be lightly seared first — passed over flame until it goes pliable and dark — or it splits when folded and weeps grassy water into the fish.