Have teeth, will eat!

Passport & Plate - Masor Tenga

India | Thursday, March 5, 2015 | 1 photos

Ingredients
Mustard oil - 1 tbsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1tsp
Tomatoes - 2 medium chopped into 8 pieces
Water - 1 + 1/2 cup
Boiled Potato - 1 chopped roughly into smallish pieces (optional)
Green Chilli - 3 cut lengthwise
Salt to taste
Boal (Wallago Attu) fish - 4 pieces (pre-coated with turmeric and salt and shallow fried in mustard oil)
Coriander leaves - handful chopped
Lime juice - 1 tbsp

 

How to prepare this recipe
Heat mustard oil and throw in the fenugreek seeds till they sputter and emit their fragrance.
Add tomatoes and stir gently.
When tomatoes are slightly soft add 1 cup of water, green chillies, potatoes (optional), salt.
Bring to a boil.
Add pre-fried fish to the curry and add the 1/2 cup remaining water.
Bring to boil.
Add coriander leaves.
Simmer for 1-2 minutes
Add lime juice, turn off and let it settle for a few minutes.

Eat hot with steamed rice.

 

The story behind this recipe
This one is an old favourite. Limited ingredients, simple to make and yet bursting with colour, freshness, flavours and tang. Masor Tenga is popular in most homes in Assam (Northeast India) but few have been able to perfect it. This recipe is my mother's take on a classic Assamese fish curry that complements hot, humid summers beautifully.
When I make this curry, the fragrance that fills up my house brings back memories from my childhood. Of being home from boarding school for the holidays and running wild in the grass, of standing on a chair beside my mother peering into the wok, of chopping vegetables haphazardly and being instructed on the importance of equal sized vegetables, of being able to eat my favourite food. Of pottering about in the kitchen mostly - the place that makes me calm and happy.
It took me many years of living away from home, feeling the tingle on my tongue merely by thinking about Masor Tenga, to finally get the recipe and make it. And what a disaster that first time was. And a couple after that. As simple as the recipe is, if it gets even the slightest bit extra or less of something, it can be quite an insipid disappointment. I could not give up. Not till I smelt that fragrance, tasted that tang and ate too much. Perseverance finally paid.
This is the curry I make for myself whenever I have fish in the house. My go-to food when I am low. My celebratory meal when I am happy. My guilty pleasure.
I haven't had a chance to make it for my mother and win her approval yet. That is what is on the menu next.