This is a very spicy Tilapia Fish curry. We can not claim this to be a Bengali recipe, as this is not an authentic dish. Usually Tilapia is a very popular fish in all over the world. This fish can be cooked in many different ways. This fish goes well in every cuisine. So I prepare this fish in Indian curry type with lots of Indian spices, onion, ginger garlic, tomato etc. Tilapia is a sweet water fish. It is a very tasty and healthy fish. Tilapia consumed in All over the world and called in the same name "Tilapia".
Basically Tilapia fish is not very good in taste, like other sweet water fish. It's blunt in taste, so we use to make this fish tasty either with Mustard paste or with onion tomato based gravy. Kind of kaliya. so the spices can add some taste into the fish also. This Tilapia Masala is a spicy version of Tilapia recipe. In this recipe, lots of onion garlic tomato is used to make the fish rice in taste. This Tilapia Masala goes well with any kind of Indian rice like, pulao, fried rice etc. This Tilapia Masala dish can be called Tel Tilapia also, as this is also an oil based curry like Tel Koi. This Tilapia Masala is rich in spices and oily. My mom use to cook this Tilapia Masala very well. I've adopted this Tilapia Masala recipe from her. But honestly can't match her taste. The Tilapia or Telapia is not very costly fish in anywhere, so we use to buy a kilo at a time. And dad used to buy small size, so we each can eat a whole fish. The fish must be 1 palm size, that mean's 5" to 6" max. And this size taste better. But unfortunately, in outside of West Bengal it's very hard to find this size tilapia. So had to buy 400 to 500 grams each fish. On the same day of buying the fish, mom use to cook Sorshe Batar Jhal with Telapia, and on the next day she definitely go for the Tilapia Masala. Here is a recipe of tilapia steak cooked in Bengali style spicy gravy.
