Mulling over mullet

Parshey bhaja
Photo courtesy: Siddharth Dasgupta, WhatamIEating.com

I wrote about Bengalis' love of fish a while ago. I hesitated to write this post and, especially, to carry the photo, for I do not want to put off vegetarians. Bengali cuisine has a great variety of vegetable dishes to please vegetarians; however, fish takes centerstage. One such fish that is a favorite of our family is parshey, or the silvery Indian mullet. The photo you see is of parshey bhaja, or fried mullet. Bhaja is a classic method applied to many fish in Bengal. The dish involves marinating the fish in salt and turmeric and deep-frying.