Macha Ghanta and Happy Dusshera

 In Orissa, we celebrate Dusshera with a lot of fan fare. There are lots of pandals setup with Durga mata in different poses and each pandal tries to outdo the other one in size and grandeur. In most households, the celebrations starts from the 6th or 7th day of Navratri and ends with a big feast on Dusshera day. In my grandma's house everyone fasts on Asthami day and then has a grand feast in the evening after puja. Fish is offered as offering and is a must on that day.

Macha Ghanta is a typical Oriya dish again. While I don't think it is a main dish for asthami, it is one of the fish dishes made on that day. Ghanta in oriya means 'mixed' and each specific ghanta has a typical set of vegetables to be added. Macha ghanta has the additional fish pieces in it. In Orissa mom makes it with the head of the fish - oh it is delicious...

Ingredients
Fried fish - few pieces
1 large onion - thinly sliced
1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
1-2 pieces - bay leaves
1-2 cardamom
1 big cinamon stick
2-3 tablespoon of Oil
Salt to taste
1 tea spoon of turmeric powder
1 tea spoon of chili powder
1 tea spoon of garam masala
1 handful of channa dal (washed and soaked for 4-5 hours)

Vegetables of your choice (what works well is mentioned below)
1 large potato diced
few string beans - cut into small pieces
1/4th of a large white radish
1 egg plant - diced
1-2 tomatoes (optional)
few pieces of red pumpkin or white pumpkin



How To
Heat Oil in a Pan and add a large Bay Leaf, cardamom, cinnamon stick.

Add the thinly sliced onions and fry till the onion turns golden brown. Add ginger-garlic paste and turmeric powder and chili powder and mix well for 2-3 minutes and then add the vegetables and the Dal. In this process you don't have to cook the ginger-garlic paste through completely, since it gets cooked with the vegetables.

Cover and cook the vegetables until cooked through. Add any tomatoes if you like and the garam masala and then the fried fish. Mix well. Adjust seasoning and serve hot with rice and salad.

Also if you want, you can make the vegetarian version where you don't add the fish. That's the version my Mom had. Since you add fried fish at the end, you can easily make both the vegetarian and non-vegetarian version at the same time...

In Orissa it is usually made with fried head of the fish and tastes awesome. It is a regular in Oriya weddings too...

Happy Dusshera everyone.