HOW TO COOK ilish polao

The 'theme' set for the 12th episode of Rupchanda-The Daily Star Super Chef was “deshi wedding”. As the affairs are meant to be elaborate, the Super Chef kitchen donned a much festive mood. The judges came dressed in red panjabis and saris and the participants themselves seemed much more cheerful than before. However, the fact remained that someone would have to be eliminated at the end of the day. Sakib, Latifa and Jebunessa made up the green while the red team was comprised of Nadim, Umme Kulsum and Shimu. Both the teams were evenly matched. They were then tasked with preparing a feast fit for 5 people.

As expected, there was plenty of polao, jali kebab, chicken roast etc along with desserts. As the teams rushed to finish before the clock ran out of them, mistakes started to appear. These could be considered to be the initial cracks. Nadim felt like his team was not being organised enough while the green team worked in almost near perfect symphony. There were some question marks again on Sakib's team performance. But Jebunessa seemed to be managing to hold her team together. However, as it stood, the traditionalist approach undertaken by Sakib, Latifa and Jebunessa prevailed over the more innovative technique that the red team had on display. Indeed, in terms of wedding, there are written in stone expectations on what to make and what is to be served. However that is not to say that they made something completely different. They had polao, roast, beef, golab jamun and a lot more. In the end though, the green team's food was just superior.

Thus, Umme Kulsum, Nadim and Shimu, who had just been team mates, now found themselves pitted against each other in the tike thakar lorai. The challenge set for them was to cook iIlish polao. Now, ilish polao is not the easy thing to make. The judges set this challenge for a particular reason and that was to check the technique.

Would the participants cook the fish and the rice separately or would they do it together? Would the fish's flavour gently spread across the rice or would it be completely absent or completely overpowering? The participants were not asked these questions nor told to follow any instructions. They were simply asked to prepare an “ilish polao”.
Surprisingly, despite being a very common dish, the participants did not have an easy time making the dish.

Firstly, they had just prepared around 10 items for the wedding challenge. Energy levels were running low. Umme Kulsum, especially, looked quite pale by the time the tike thakar lorai began. She was the crowd favourite but many feared this would be her last performance in the Super Chef kitchen. Despite that, Doctor Apa, as she is referred to by the other participants, prevailed and cooked quite a tasty meal. Nadim too managed to put what was needed on the plate. Unfortunately, Shimu's dish was just not up to mark. She had cooked her fish separately, something others do too, and hence the flavour of the fish was hardly present. Heart-breaking as it was, Shimu had to bid farewell. Next week’s column will have more heart breaks as we bid farewell to another participant and a favourite. A few stills from Saib’s departure show his utter sadness. More on that, next week!

By the time next week comes around, you will already know who the Super Chef is. But our stories will continue and if you have missed any episode, then keep your eye here as we continue going behind the scenes and exploring each episode.