Hilsa is best cooked and eaten the day it is brought home from the market. But in the hilsa season many people buy extra and keep it in the deep freezer for later. Stored properly, hilsa can keep its taste and quality for quite some time, as long as you know the right way to pack it and how soon to eat it.

To store hilsa whole, clean it as soon as possible after buying and put it in the freezer. If blood or visible dirt needs removing, wash it safely, drain it well and wipe it dry with tissue or a clean cloth. Then pack it ready for cooking.

Rather than putting many fish in one large packet, pack each hilsa separately so you can take out only what you need. Use airtight zip-lock bags, food-grade freezer bags or suitable lidded boxes. Squeeze out as much air as possible and seal the packet well, which reduces the risk of freezer burn and odours spreading.

Many people cut hilsa into pieces for convenience. Clean the fish, cut it as needed and pack the amount needed for each meal in a separate packet. You can rub the pieces with a little salt, turmeric or chilli powder, but for long storage it is better not to add much spice and to pack the fish plain. Adding fresh spices at cooking time keeps the flavour better.

Freezing fish submerged in a bowl of water is a common method, but airtight packing is more convenient for home storage. If water gets into the packet or it is punctured, the fish can lose quality, so wrapping it well in a moisture-proof packet without water is the safer method.

The best way to thaw hilsa is to move it from the freezer to the bottom shelf of the fridge and let it thaw slowly. Fish should not be left at room temperature for long to thaw, and care is needed about refreezing fish once thawed.

Fish thawed safely in the fridge can be refrozen if necessary, but its taste and quality may suffer. It is best to store it in small packets as needed so that fish taken out once can be cooked in full.

Proper packing, the right temperature and dividing fish into portions are the key to storing hilsa, making it easy to enjoy the season's catch later on.

Original source cited: India Today.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.