Dinejot

East Indian

Muger Dal with Fish Head

Muger Dal with Fish Head is East Indian home cooking, eaten at lunch and dinner. On the plate it is the dish at the centre, the protein alongside, and the soup. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.

45 min Medium Pescatarian Halal Gluten free Dairy free

Ingredients

  • 1 cup yellow moong dal
  • 4 cups water
  • 3/4 tsp turmeric
  • 1 fish head (rohu or catla), cleaned
  • 3 tbsp mustard oil
  • 1 tsp panch phoron (five-spice blend)
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 dried red chilies
  • 1 tbsp ginger paste
  • 2 tbsp chopped cilantro
  • 1.25 tsp salt

How to cook it

  1. Rub the cleaned fish head with a little turmeric and salt and let it marinate for 10 minutes.
  2. Heat half the mustard oil in a pan and fry the fish head on both sides until lightly golden and just cooked, about 6 minutes, then set aside.
  3. Rinse the moong dal and dry roast it in the empty pot for 2 minutes until it smells nutty, then add the water, remaining turmeric, and salt and simmer until soft, about 20 minutes.
  4. Heat the remaining mustard oil in a small pan, temper with the panch phoron, bay leaf, and dried red chilies, then stir in the ginger paste.
  5. Pour the tempering into the dal, nestle in the fried fish head, and simmer gently for 8 minutes so the head flavors the dal and breaks apart slightly.
  6. Finish with cilantro and serve hot over rice, a frugal Bengali way to stretch a fish head into a full family meal.

Serve it with

A East Indian dinner is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Muger Dal with Fish Head, read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.

A course labelled with another kitchen's name comes from a cuisine in the same family, which is where this plate usually borrows it from.

Safe at your table

Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand, so the absences below are as deliberate as the presences. Muger Dal with Fish Head carries fish. It is free of the remaining 9 allergens on that list.

Every tracked allergen in Muger Dal with Fish Head
Allergen In this dish Cook this instead
Peanuts No
Tree nuts No
Dairy No
Gluten No
Shellfish No
Eggs No
Soy No
Fish Yes Aloo Posto (Potato in Poppy Seed Paste)
Sesame No
Coconut No

These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.

What it brings to the plate

Bands, not numbers. Dinejot does not weigh anybody's food, so it says light, moderate or hearty and stops there. This dish was read and set by hand.

Calorie band
Moderate
Protein
Medium
Protein quality
Complete
Food groups it covers
Pulses and Meat or fish
How this was set
Hand audited

When to cook it

Muger Dal with Fish Head takes about 45 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a fair bit of work. It is eaten at lunch and dinner. Nothing in the calendar rules it out, so it is a year round dish.

Watch someone make it

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More to cook

Cooked from the same things

Other dishes built on moong dal and fish.

From the same kitchens

More cooking from East India.

Does the same job on the plate

Swap any of these in when you want a meal the same shape.

More like this

Cook this with your whole family

Dinejot plans breakfast, lunch and dinner as whole plates, built around the cooking you call home and filtered for the allergies at your table.

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