Bhetki maacher bhapa recipe | Bengali Steamed Vetki fish curry

Bhetki maacher bhapa recipe or Bengali Steamed Vetki fish is a shorshe posto diye Bhetki mach bhapa recipe described with step-by-step.

What is Bhetki maacher bhapa?

Bhetki maacher bhapa is a Bengali style steamed vetki aka barramundi fish curry recipe cooked with simple ingredients and spices. This fish curry is prepared to eat with steamed rice.

To make Bhetki maacher bhapa, we need Bhetki fish steaks or fish fillets, mustard seeds, poppy seeds, freshly grated coconut, yogurt, cashew nuts, green chilies, and a few simple spices available in our Bengali kitchen. As you know cooking any Bengali bhapa dish is incomplete without using raw Mustard oil for its aroma. So raw mustard oil is one more important ingredient here to drizzle over the marination of fish before steaming or at the end of the cooking.

For making this bhetki maacher bhapa, here I am using ring-cut bhetki fish pieces, you can use bhetki fish fillets too. Bhetki fish has soft meat and here yogurt is also a very good tenderizer. That is why this steamed fish curry does not take more than 10 minutes to cook whether using ring pieces or fillets of bhetki. Including preparation total cooking time will be hardly 30 mins. 

Steamed Bhetki fish curry is very easy to prepare on a gas stove, in a pan or pressure cooker, or a microwave oven. I will share all methods of steaming the fish, and you can use any kind of cooking technique at your convenience.

If you love to have bhetki(vetki) fish, then must try this Bhetki maacher bhapa recipe as it is as delicious as Bhapa Ilish and not as time-consuming as Bhetki Macher Paturi recipe.

So let’s check this steamed bhetki preparation, make this fish curry at home, and write your feedback about everything of this recipe in my comment section below.

Can try my Chingri macher bhapa & Dim bhapa recipe

How to make Bhetki maacher bhapa step-by-step recipe

1. First, soak mustard seeds and poppy seeds with a 1/2 cup of water and leave it for at least 10 minutes.
2. Then transfer the soaked mustard seeds & poppy seeds to a grinder and make a paste by adding green chilies, cashew nuts, grated coconut, salt, and 1 tbsp water.
3. Add the yogurt with the masala paste and once again run the grinder to make a smooth and creamy paste.
4. Now take the cleaned and washed fish pieces or fillets(around 400 g) in a bowl or tiffin box (used to steam).
5. Pour the masala paste into the fish by adding 1/2 cup of water, and mix them well.
6. Evenly coat each fish piece with the masala gravy.
7. Then add salt, drizzle of mustard oil, and mix the fish well.
8. After marinating this way keep the fish for 10 mins rest.
9. After 10 mins, spread 4 green chilies (slit) over the marinated fish and tightly close the lid of the tiffin box.
10. Heat a pan on medium heat, with 2 cups of water, put a stand on the pan, and put the tiffin box on the stand. Close the pan with a tight lid.
11. Steam the fish for 10 minutes on medium heat & Bhetki Maacher Bhapa will be ready. Turn off the heat.
12. Serve the fish hot with steamed rice and best to have it with a wedge of gondhoraj lebu (though optional).

Tips to steam bhetki fish in a pressure cooker

1. Pour the marinated fish into a tiffin box, and tightly close the lid of the box.

2. In a pressure cooker, add 2 cups of water, put a stand on the water, and put the tiffin box on the stand.

3. Close the pressure cooker lid, keep the cooker on the gas stove on medium heat, and cook for 10 mins.

4. After 10 mins, steamed bhetki will be ready, turn off the heat, and take out the fish from the cooker when the pressure releases.

How to steam Bhetki maach in a microwave oven

1. After the marination of the fish, pour the marinated fish into a microwave bowl.
2. Put that microwave bowl in a baking tray (even can use a cake tin) which is half full of hot water.
3. Microwave the fish for 10 minutes at the high temperature of your microwave oven’s microwave mode. Turn off the microwave and enjoy your steamed bhetki aka vetki bhapa with steamed rice.