Northeast Indian
Masor Tenga (Sour Fish Curry)
Masor Tenga (Sour Fish Curry) is Northeast Indian home cooking, eaten at lunch and dinner. On the plate it is the dish at the centre and the soup. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.
Ingredients
- 1.5 lb fish steaks (rohu or similar)
- 2 tbsp mustard oil
- 2 tomatoes
- 1/2 lemon
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 2 green chili
- 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 2 cups water
- 1 tsp salt
How to cook it
- Rub the fish steaks with a little turmeric and salt and set aside for 10 minutes.
- Heat the mustard oil in a shallow pan and shallow fry the fish pieces briefly on both sides, then lift them out.
- In the same oil, let the fenugreek seeds sizzle, then add the chopped tomatoes and cook until they soften and break down.
- Pour in the water, add the remaining turmeric, slit green chilies, and salt, and bring to a boil.
- Slide the fish back in and simmer gently until it is just cooked through, about 8 minutes.
- Squeeze in the lemon juice at the end for the signature sour edge and serve hot with rice.
Serve it with
A Northeast Indian dinner is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Masor Tenga (Sour Fish Curry), read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.
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The cooked vegetable
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The protein alongside
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What it is eaten with
A course labelled with another kitchen's name comes from a cuisine in the same family, which is where this plate usually borrows it from.
Safe at your table
Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand, so the absences below are as deliberate as the presences. Masor Tenga (Sour Fish Curry) carries fish. It is free of the remaining 9 allergens on that list.
| Allergen | In this dish | Cook this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Peanuts | No | |
| Tree nuts | No | |
| Dairy | No | |
| Gluten | No | |
| Shellfish | No | |
| Eggs | No | |
| Soy | No | |
| Fish | Yes | Assamese Chicken Curry |
| Sesame | No | |
| Coconut | No |
These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.
What it brings to the plate
Bands, not numbers. Dinejot does not weigh anybody's food, so it says light, moderate or hearty and stops there. This dish was read and set by hand.
- Calorie band
- Moderate
- Protein
- Medium
- Protein quality
- Complete
- Food groups it covers
- Meat or fish and Vegetables
- How this was set
- Hand audited
When to cook it
Masor Tenga (Sour Fish Curry) takes about 35 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a fair bit of work. It is eaten at lunch and dinner. Nothing in the calendar rules it out, so it is a year round dish.
Watch someone make it
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More to cook
Cooked from the same things
Other dishes built on fish and tomato.
From the same kitchens
More cooking from Northeast India.
Does the same job on the plate
Swap any of these in when you want a meal the same shape.
Cook this with your whole family
Dinejot plans breakfast, lunch and dinner as whole plates, built around the cooking you call home and filtered for the allergies at your table.
Meal suggestions support your goals. They are not medical advice. Please ask your doctor about your family's health needs.