Skip to main content
Main

Zarebrian Mahee Baykhar

A fish dish with rice, spices, saffron, and lemon leaves, cooked in a bamboo‑stacked pan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Ghee and cumin work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 454 recipes mention both. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: egg

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Cut the fish into large slices.

  2. Clean and wash the fish well in water three to four times.

  3. Soak the fish in ginger oil for 30 minutes.

  4. Wash the fish again.

  5. Rub the fish with chenna flour.

  6. Wash the fish again.

  7. Repeat rubbing with more chenna flour.

  8. Bruise some lemon leaves.

  9. Rub the fish slices with the bruised lemon leaves.

  10. Tie the fish slices in a cloth.

Cook the fish

  1. Boil the fish in water until nearly done.

  2. Remove the fish from the water.

  3. Take out the bones if necessary.

  4. Mix half the curry mixture with saffron and ground eggs.

  5. Spread the mixture over the fish.

  6. Fry the fish until golden brown.

Assemble and cook

  1. Place bamboo sticks in a saucepan.

  2. Lay the cutlets on the bamboo sticks, adding the remaining curry mixture.

  3. Parboil the rice in plain water.

  4. Place the rice on top of the cutlets.

  5. Pour a little ghee over the rice.

  6. In the center, place a biscuit and some saffron-colored rice.

  7. Cover the saucepan tightly.

  8. Put charcoal on the cover.

  9. Cook on low heat until you hear the ghee bubbling.

  10. Remove the charcoal.

  11. Let the dish simmer for 30 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Ghee + cumintop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together454 recipes
  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,027 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Coriander + cumintop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Cinnamon + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,299 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Cardamom + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together872 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fish
Provides the main protein, which firms and sets as it is boiled and then fried.
Rice
Forms the bulk of the dish and absorbs the ghee and steam from the cutlets below.
Ghee
Adds richness and aroma, and helps the rice and fish brown when fried.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet aroma to the spiced curry mixture coating the fish.

The step that matters

Boil the fish in water until nearly done. Fish protein tightens and breaks apart quickly when overcooked, so stopping at nearly done keeps the slices intact. The fish finishes cooking during frying and simmering.

Flavor stand-ins for the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, rice, flour, cinnamon, cardamom, clove, ginger):

  1. Nutmegbetter flavor fit
  2. Turmericbetter flavor fit
  3. Allspicebetter flavor fit
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, rice, flour, cinnamon, cardamom, clove, ginger. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Illustration of Lemon SauceIllustrationLemon Sauce236 recipesIllustration of Fried FishIllustrationFried Fish120 recipesIllustration of Rice FrittersIllustrationRice Fritters84 recipesIllustration of Fish CroquettesIllustrationFish Croquettes81 recipes