Description :
Buying fish for a small household is its own problem. Rui is the fish everyone wants to cook — the plain jhol, the fried slices with rice and dal — but it arrives at the market as a two or three kilo animal, and the smallest useful amount most sellers will cut is more than a couple of people can get through before it stops being worth eating.
Chhuya Premium Rui Slice in a 500g pack is sized for that reality. Two or three cross-cut slices, frozen, enough for a meal or two, and it doesn't take over the freezer compartment.
Who this pack is for?
If you cook for one or two people, a kilo of fish is a commitment rather than a convenience. Half a kilo is a dinner.
It also suits anyone buying rui frozen for the first time. Frozen fish divides opinion, and finding out whether you're happy with the texture and the cut costs BDT 320 here rather than twice that. If it works for you, the 1kg pack is there and slightly cheaper per kilo.
And there's the practical matter of freezer space, which in most Dhaka flats is the real constraint. A small pack slots in beside everything else. A kilo of fish requires a decision about what comes out.
What you're cooking with?
Rui has firm, mildly sweet flesh with enough natural oil to stand up to a rich gravy without going greasy. The slices keep their shape through slow cooking, which is why the fish suits the preparations Bengali kitchens use it for.
Its bones are large and clearly visible rather than fine and scattered — you lift them out instead of picking through them. That's a meaningful difference from any small whole fish, and the reason fried rui is what so many children are given first.
What to make with half a kilo?
Two or three slices is the right amount for:
A plain jhol for two, with potato, nigella seed and green chilli.
Fried rui — turmeric, salt, shallow-fried until the edges catch. With rice and dal this is a complete meal.
Doi rui for two, yoghurt-based and mild.
A small kalia, if you want something richer without cooking for a crowd.
Shorshe rui, mustard-forward and quick.
Give the slices a brief fry before they go into a gravy. It firms the surface so they don't break as the curry reduces.
Storing and thawing a small pack
Keep it at -18°C. One advantage of the smaller pack is that thawing the whole thing is a reasonable thing to do — you're not committing to eight slices to cook two.
Move it to the refrigerator the night before. If that's not possible, leave the sealed pack in cold water and change the water every twenty to thirty minutes; a 500g pack comes round considerably faster than a kilo. Avoid warm water, which warms the outside into the range bacteria prefer while the centre is still hard.
Dry the slices before they meet hot oil, cook within a day of thawing, and don't put thawed fish back in the freezer.
Buying it:
Pick your quantity, choose a delivery location and pay through a secure method at checkout. Into the freezer as soon as it arrives.
