Moori Ghonto

Moori Ghonto: Fish head cooked with Lentil( Masoor daal) or Green Gram, split, without skin(Moong daal). Its absolutely tasty and my favourite.

Apart from the above mentioned ingredients, Moori Ghonto is also cooked with a variety of vegetables, cooked rice, sira(flattened rice) and moori(puffed rice). The most popular is the one cooked with either Lentil or Green Gram.
For this Assamese Delicacy you need :

 Rahu fish, this one weighed around 2kg.

Take only the head of the fish for this recipe.

Cut into 2 or 3 pieces

1/2 cup Green Gram, split, without skin(Moong daal)

Paste of 1 Onion + little Ginger
A few Bay leaves
Whole green Chillies to taste.

 A pinch of Cumin seeds(Jeera)

2tsp Turmeric
2tsp Salt or according to your taste
1tsp Garam Masala(powdered Cardamom+Cinnamon+Clove)

2 to 3 tblsps Mustard oil for the Moori Ghonto and 1/3 cup to fry the pieces of head. 

Marinate fish head with little Turmeric and Salt for 15minutes, fry in Mustard oil and keep aside.

Roast Moong daal, keep stirring so that it doesn't get burnt. Let cool and only then wash it for the final cooking.

 Heat oil, splutter the Jeera and put in paste of Onion+Ginger, green chilly and Bay leaves. Saute for some time, add Moong daal, Salt, Turmeric and Garam masala, stir well, saute for 5minutes and pour 2 cups of warm water. Cook covered till daal is half cooked.

Drop the fried fish head, stir and pour 2 more cups of warm water to the daal, cover and cook. Stir occasionally, check the water, cover and cook till the fish head and daal both are cooked.

 Moori Ghonto is ready. Some prefer it little more watery and feel, the taste is more if the head is broken into several pieces. For this add little more warm water, break the pieces to smaller ones while cooking.

Moori Ghonto with little gravy is ready.
My Aaita(Grandmom) and Maa(Mom) would cook Moori Ghonto exactly this way, only Maa would add 1 tblsp of pure Ghee(clarified butter) and stir gently before serving, which enhanced the taste as well as aroma.