Jalfrezi is a dish that I know nothing about. So far I have come across dishes in Moni Dadi’s diary that I could not recognize or knew very little of, but nothing I have zero knowledge about. Seeing the dish itself and the name of the dish, I thought it was a dish of Punjabi or even Afghan origin. That would have been a solid excuse for not knowing the dish, but wikipedia says Jalfrezi originated in Bengal. So I guess I just have to accept my ignorance or dig deeper into why I do not know anything about Jalfrezi.

As I started to dig deeper, I looked into the name first. The word “Jal” or “Jhal” means hot or spicy in Bangla. And everyone just chalked up “frezi” to mean fry, specifically stir fry. So the name Jalfrezi means hot or spicy fry. The name makes sense for what the dish is. I give it points for that. But I could not find what “frezi” actually means or where it comes from. Until I found one explanation saying that “frezi” might be a mispronunciation or misspelling of the word “fry”. And this kind of makes sense. Because “Jhalfry” is a well liked and widely available dish in Bangladeshi kebab joints. And names changing over time and place is a common phenomenon. But then again, Jalfrezi made by Moni Dadi and all the other Jalfrezi I saw online look and taste very different from most of the Jhalfry found in Bangladesh. So jalfrezi and Jhalfry might be completely separate dishes. Or they might be dishes of the same origin but have evolved over the years.

I also looked if any restaurants in Dhaka offer Jalfrezi. Surprisingly, from my cursory search I could not find any restaurant. It further solidifies my theory about the Jalfrezi and Jhalfry being the same, or else Jalfrezi would be available somewhere in Dhaka.

But I am still left with questions regarding wikipedia calling it a Bengal cuisine. Was wikipedia just talking about West Bengal? I would love to know about Jalfrezi from someone living on the other side of Bangla. So if anyone reading is from West Bengal, please tell me your experience with Jalfrezi. Is Jalfrezi a dish you grew up with or is Jalfrezi something you get in restaurants or kebab joints? Or are you just like me, clueless about the dish.

While searching online I did find that Jalfrezi is particularly popular in the UK. Apparently even in the US the dish is barely available in restaurants. Even all the recipe videos I saw for Jalfrezi had a British touch. Either the cook was of Anglo Indian origin or had some kind of mention of the UK. I even learned that Jalfrezi is not very popular in Pakistan, it’s overshadowed by Chicken Karahi or Chicken Manchurian. So I guess Jalfrezi is one of the many things the British stole from us, just this item did not end up in a museum and is actually something we gladly share.

Now about the dish itself, the translation of the name describes it pretty well. But a youtube cook described it as an Indian version of chicken stir fry with lovely spicy gravy sauce and I think it’s also spot on. Though I did not try recreating their recipe and just based on looks, the two recipes seem different. Moni Dadi’s version of Jalfrezi has the Bangladeshi soul while the other recipes I found seemed much more polished and less homely. So if you want the proper Bangladeshi version of Jalfrezi, I suggest you try out our recipe. But there are plenty of other recipes for Jalfrezi available online, you can seek them out too if you want. Or you can mix Moni Dadi’s recipe with other recipes and create something absolutely new, something you. And if you do end up doing something like that, reach out to us. We would love to see your creation.