Masor Tenga is one of the popular main dish of Assamese cuisine and is an integral traditional Assamese Thali. This dish is light and tangy from the tomatoes, and mildly spiced. This dish is relatively easy to make. Assam (famous for tea) is on the Eastern side of India and so there are a lot of Thai and Chinese influences. Traditionally they use fermented bamboo shoots called kharisa but you can use tinned bamboo shoots if you have.
I fried the fish in mustard oil as Assamese do but you can use any vegetable oil. The mighty Brahmaputra River flows through Assam and so the local fish is river fish. I used warehou which is local to the waters in and around Wellington but you could use any white fish fillets or even steaks.
For the fennel seed powder, I suggest you roast about a tablespoon of fennel seeds and pound it in a mortar and pestle.
INGREDIENTS
700g white fish fillets
100ml mustard oil or vegetable oil
For the marinade
1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger
½ teaspoon red chilli powder
½ teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon fennel seed powder
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon brown sugar