But about fresh turmeric root!
My father had major heart surgery in 2001, which was going to leave him with an extremely large scar down the middle of his chest. The Chinese lady nurse who was helping him change dressings told him that rubbing fresh turmeric on the scar would help it heal.

He did, and for 6 months he had stained fingers and a stained chest. But it worked, bu god. His scar is so pale and much less noticeable then other people who have had the same operation, and his healing time was much less.

As well as being delicious, turmeric heals the ill!

And thank you for the recipe–I will make it sometime and present it in my blog, and credit you.

You know, I was taught a variation on this recipe by Tanvir, the husband of the couple I used to cook for when I lived in Maryland. He is from Bangladesh, but he told me his recipe was Bengali–and it is very similar to yours. He used less mustard, and he added well browned red onions, some garlic and fresh ginger to the dish.

But the turmeric and salt–that was exactly the same–and I think he used some cumin seeds with the mustard seeds, too.

I remember making a variation of his recipe for the owners of the restaurant where I worked last year, as a model of the sort of dishes I could make with a real stove so I could do real sauteed dishes. They were blown away by the brightness of flavor the fish had.

Thank you for giving me this recipe–it means much to me when my readers share.

Blessings to you. You have given me an incomparable birthday gift.

I live in New Delhi, and am a long time reader of your blog. I have never commented before, but I just wanted to say how much I have learned from your writing. Even though I grew up watching my mother cook, and cook every day, Indian food takes on a whole new life under your hands

So thank you, and as a small offering in return for all the many many gifts of food and technique you have given me over the years, here is a very simple fish recipe, cooked in mustard paste, from Bengal, in eastern India:

Shorshe Maach (Mustard Fish)

This is a traditional recipe from Bengal for that most revered of all
fish – Hilsa, Illish. I do not know what this fish is called in
English, but you can read about it here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilsa. It will work with any oily fish.
The fish must be very fresh that is all.

For 8 pieces of fish: Rub the fish pieces with a little salt and
turmeric on both sides and set aside for about 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile you start doing the following:

Take about 1-2 heaped tablespoons of mustard seeds and soak them in hot
water for a minute or so. There are several kinds of mustard seeds we get here, I use the larger black mustard, but you can also use the smaller red mustard if that if what you find. Then drain and grind them into a smooth
paste with 1 or two or three (depending on how hot you like your food) large green chilies. While you can of course do this in
your Preethi (which in India is called a mixie , I grind by hand
because hand grinding presses the oil out of the seeds. It also takes
hardly any time.

Chop 4 tomatoes roughly.

Now, in a flat saucepan, shallow fry the fish on both sides, till it
is golden. For hilsa, because the flesh is so delicate this takes
barely a few minutes, you would have to judge for the fish you are
using. The point is to fry it just till the fish seals and turn
golden.

In a pot, put two tsp of mustard oil and when it is hot put in 1 tsp
of Nigella seeds. When they pop, put in the tomatoes, sprinkle salt
and turmeric powder. Fry the tomatoes till they have cooked through
and become like a mush. Then, put in the the ground mustard paste and
fry for a few minutes. Then put in 5 to 6 slit green chilies. Simply
slit the chilies down the middle and put them in. Since you are not
chopping them up and not using any red chili powder, the only heat in
the dish comes from these. So don’t worry about using more than this
if you want. Then pour in about 1 cup of water and bring this whole
thing to a boil. turn it down and gently slide in your fish pieces.
Simmer the fish for a few minutes till it completely absorbs the
flavour of the curry. Two minuets before you take it off the heat, put
in 1 handful of chopped fresh cilantro (coriander) leaves. Serve with
rice.

The mustard is not an overpowering flavour at all. It is strong but delicate

Thank you again,
Aarti