Along the highways cooks magic meals for travellers from the most meagre of ingredients, a skill close to alchemy. They don’t rely on expensive and difficult to find spices, opting instead for spices they can grow or forage.
This an old recipe from Maleku in Nepal it goes back to the days before the bridge washed away when Maleku was just a few fishermen’s houses each with it’s own fish restaurant and porters room in the back. In Maleku this was made with river fish which are difficult to find in Guernsey where the Bream are plentiful and a tasty substitute.
Marinade
For cooking
Place the fennel seeds in a pestle and mortar or spice grinder and grind to a powder add the ginger, garlic, turmeric, 1 roughly chopped chilli, masala, vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon salt and the lemon juice then grind to a paste. Make 2 deep gashes to either side of the bream and cover the bream all over with the marinade, leave the bream to marinade for 1 to 4 hours.
Pierce the plum tomatoes and place them in an oven proof dish with the finely chopped chilli, green pepper, ½ teaspoon salt, and mix them so the chilli is evenly distributed. With a piece of kitchen paper wipe the excess marinade off the bream, it’s fine to leave a little of the marinade behind. Place the bream in the dish, on top of the tomatoes and arrange the lemon slices around the sides. Roast for 25 minutes or the until bream flesh is fully opaque it should easily come away from the bones when you test it. Let the fish rest for 5 minutes before serving.