
Macher Jhol is a traditional Bengali recipe. Pabda fish is also known as Pabo Catfish in English. Pabda fish is one of the popular fish in West Bengal and in Bangladesh. This is a very soft and delicate fish.
Serving Size: 2
Cooking Time: 30 mins
Ingredients:
- 4 medium size Pabda Fish
- 1 Potato
- 1/4 Cauliflower
- 1/2 Eggplant
- 1 Tomato
- 2 Green Chilly
- Few Coriander Leaves
- 1 tsp Black Jeera
- 1 tsp Ginger Paste
- 1 tsp Cumin Powder
- 1 tsp Coriander Powder
- Salt
- Sugar
- 1 tsp Turmeric Powder
Cooking procedure:
Take the good pieces of fish and clean it with water pat it dry. You can use the whole fish for cooking. No need to slice it off.
Heat oil in non stick skillet and shallow fry the fish.Keep aside the fish pieces.

Cut all the vegetables into small pieces
Fry all the vegetables and keep aside .
Put rest of the oil in the kadai and jeera to crackle in oil . Then add ginger paste, green chilly and all the spices add tomato. Put all the fried vegetables and hot water. Add fish pieces into it for boiling and let it simmer for few minutes.
Serving Suggestions:
Now preparation is ready to serve with hot rice.
If you enjoyed this post, consider leaving a comment and subscribe to my YouTube Channel
It has added everything and the result is anything other than Pabdar jhol. Pabda is famous for its utter simplicity in cooking. Simply Kalojeere phoron is the answer and nothing else. In the way that is published one kills the taste of Pabda. It seems the cook cooks all fish alike like the north Indians who know nothing about fish
Typically, I do like veggies with the plain fish curries. My mom prepares it with only kalo jeere phoron. I’ll certainly post another one “Pabda Maach Kalo Jire Diye Jhol”
btw, I’m a pure bong from Kol…
This recipe will kill the taste of pabda mach. Cut out all the veggies. Just onion, potato, tomato. That’s it.
This is pabda fish Jhol… the one that you are talking about is Jhal.
Agree with Mili Dutta. She has suggested a type of Jhol which I have eaten at homes of khanti Bangal friends in Dhaka, Guwahati and Delhi. This comes out really well in a way that the Pabda’s distinct flavour gets enhanced. Sometimes the problem with us Bengalis (particularly, Ghotis from Kolkata) is that typical – we know all attitude. Ja aami jani setai aasol. Eta kintu satti khub pathetic. Even West Bengal has a widespread diversity in cooking style as well as traditions. The variations sometimes are subtle and sometimes quite overt. At the end, will thanks for this Recipe Mili Dutta. Aami aapnar recipe without prejudice follow kore ekebare serokomer shaad peyechi jemon aami opore ullekh korechi.
Also wanted to mention in addition that my mother also sometimes uses kalo jirer phoron and aada dhane jire bata.
mach er aashol shaad ke kunu shomoy o noshto korte lage na. Be simple n enjoy d taste