Finding flavour in fish innards
macher tel literally translates to fish oil. Sometimes it also refers to the skin of the fish. But it usually means innards, which consist of some fat, liver, intestines and gallbladder of the fish.
Entrails if you may call it, or say, offal. Some might say it is “ugly delicious". Large-sized freshwater carps such as rohu and catla are packed with the best fish fat.
Macher tel is loved for its complex depth of flavour. It is buttery, textural and all kinds of umami. But it does not enjoy the same status as that of a chingri malaikari or kosha mangsho.
It is neither cooked on special occasions, nor does it feature on any restaurant menus. Is it because eating rejected organs of a fish is not commonly associated with a cuisine often celebrated for its abundance? It is deeply cultural given the prevalence of nose-to-tail eating practice in Bengal, where a generation of home cooks continue to demonstrate an uncanny knack for cooking with kitchen discards. My mother can effortlessly put peels of bottle gourd, potato skins and cauliflower stalks, fish heads and innards to precise use.
Macher tel is no different. She cooks it with brinjals and potatoes in a greasy chorchori (a mishmash of sorts), or as crisp fritters (bora), that we relish with steaming hot rice coated with lashings of the oil they are fried in. Recipes such as these are rarely documented, and passed down from one family to another.
Maa learned to repurpose innards from her mother, and tells me she has never encountered a recipe in traditional cookbooks. I don’t have a clear memory of eating fish fat for the first time. But I remember the times when I’d rush home hungry after school to find it on the lunch menu.
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