Shidol is a well-known traditional food in Nilphamari, in northern Bangladesh. Around Babupara in Nilphamari it has been made and stored for generations from small dried fish and taro stems, and cook Jolly Apa has helped make the dish widely known.
Ingredients are various small dried fish, ginger, garlic, green chillies, black taro stems, and cumin and coriander powder. In a wooden or stone vessel known locally as a samgai or urungai, the dried fish is first pounded without water and set aside; then green chillies, garlic and ginger are ground fine. Shidol is made hot, since locals believe the hotter it is the better it tastes.
Soft black taro stem is added in proportion to the fish and everything is pounded again. When the mixture turns sticky, cumin and coriander powder are worked in, and it is shaped into round or flat cakes, rolled in a little mustard oil and turmeric and dried in strong sun for two or three days. Once hard, the cakes keep for a long time in a pot of wood ash.
For the curry, ginger, garlic, green chilli, turmeric, chilli, cumin and coriander are fried and the fish pieces briefly cooked in them and set aside. Potato and brinjal are simmered in the same spices, then the fish and cleaned, roasted shidol are added and cooked until the sauce dries. Shidol that is not cooked through can keep the raw smell of dried fish, so it needs time on low heat.
In Nilphamari, roasted shidol, shidol bhorta and hot shidol curry with fish and brinjal are traditionally served to guests. The report notes that the late writer Humayun Ahmed praised shidol after tasting it in Nilphamari.
Source: Dinajpur TV
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