Aakhol Ghor, the Assamese Cuisines and Foods from Assam: Assmese Pork Recipes

Aakhol Ghor, the Assamese Cuisines and Foods from Assam: Assmese Pork Recipes:

Aakhol Ghor means Kitchen in Assamese. Assamese traditional Kitchens normally has two parts. First the dining area plus a small cooking space for tea etc. And the next bigger and more functional room is the actual kitchen with at least two earthen fire places (chowka).If you are a food lover you can hope to see a lot of authentic Assamese Recipes in this place......
visit the blog:  Its all about Food and Food Habits from the land of blue hills and red river, Assam. 
aakholghor

Baanhor Chungat Maach (Fish in Bamboo Hollow): From the Assamese Kitchen

Month of April is Bihu festival time in Assam, a north eastern state of India.

So now lots of variety cooking are happening in the Assamese kitchen, here are the list of some items below:

KHAR : A curry mixed with the juice of banana soots. (It is made by drying the trunk of banana plant or banana peels and setting it on fire. The ashes are kept soaked in a coconut shell and the juice that flows out is known as kalakhar.)This dish can be prepared with vegetables, dried night jasmine flowers(Xewali Fhul), fish and dals.

TENGA : A sour dish made either with leafy vegetables like fern-shoots, Taro leaves, fish or dal vadas ,the sourness being produced by the addition of lime juice, elephant apples and tomatoes.

BHAPOT DIYA : Fish or vegetables steamed with oil and spices. A classic steaming technique is to wrap the fish in banana leaf to give it a faint musky, smoky scent.

PITIKA : Any vegetable, such as potatoes, beans, Taro, pumpkins or Brinjal, first boiled whole and then mashed and seasoned with mustard oil or ghee and spices.

PURA : Literally, burnt over charcoal. Vegetables are wrapped in banana leaves and roasted over a wood or charcoal fire. Some, like eggplants (brinjals/aubergines), are put directly over the flames. Before eating the roasted vegetable is mixed with mustard oil and spices.

PITHA : Typical Assamese snack, prepared from powdered sticky rice called Bora Saul. This snack is sweet as various sweetners like sugar, jaggery, crated coconuts are added. This snack is well accompanied with a cup of refreshing Assam tea. There are different varieties of pithas like Til(Black sesame) Pitha, Ketlir mukhot diya pitha (steamed using a kettle with full of boiling water),Sunga pitha (It is cooked by stuffing the bora saul or sticky rice, whether ground or whole, into bamboo cylinders, and placing the cylinder on fire. It can be had with gur (jaggery) alone, or with doi (curd) and komal saul, another typically Assamese ready-to-eat rice; which can be soaked in water and it's ready to eat) etc. This a common snack during the Bihu time (Assamese newyear).


One of those items is Baanhor Chungat Maach (Fish in Bamboo Hollow):

Ingredients:

# Boneless fish: 6 pieces
# Crushed garlic: ½ tbsp
# Slit green chillies: 2
# Mustard oil: 1 tbsp
# Sliced onions: 2 small sized
# Grated ginger: 1 level tsp
# Salt: to taste
# Tender bamboo hollow: 1 (this one is important, you must required this)
# Banana leaf: 1
# To garnish: coriander leaves, mustard oil – 1 ½ tbsps


Method:

# Clean, wash and drain the fish.
# Clean the banana leaf. Dry it and pass over low fire to make the leaf pliable.
# In a small bowl mix together crushed garlic, slit green chillies, mustard oil and salt.
# Add the mixture to the fish and mix well.
# Fill the bamboo hollow with the fish and seal with soften banana leaf.
# Place the hollows over charcoal fire.
# Rotate the bamboo hollows from time to time till it is evenly burnt.
# Leave it to cool. Slit open the bamboo hollows.
# Add sliced onions, grated ginger and mustard oil to the fish and mix well.
# Serve Baanhor Chungat Mach as a side dish.

Notes: Assamese people prefer green chillies to the dry red chillies.

For knowing more what is happening inside an Assamese Kitchen plz visit  assamese cuisine, you will be not disappointed.

Pork with Bamboo Shoot - Angami Naga style)

Thevo Chu ( Pork with Bamboo Shoot - Angami style) a Naga receipe posted at  Northeasterner.

(The Angami are one of the major Naga tribes of Nagaland, India.)

Written by toinalisema 
Toinali Sema is a Delhi based research scholar. She likes writing and is a big time foodie. She is heavily into poetries, specially poetry that focuses on the 'North East'.

Ingredients

    * 750 grams pork
    * Fermented bamboo shoot (1 medium tablespoon)
    * Red chilli powder (4 tea spoons)
    * Pepper (10-15 flowers); can use grinded pepper as an alternative
    * Ginger (10 grams)
    * Garlic (5 big cloves)
    * Salt
    * Water

To make curry paste
Make a paste of ginger and garlic and keep it aside.
Cut the bamboo shoots into small sizes of 1 cm each. Measure a 1 tablespoon bamboo shoot and keep it aside. Use the bamboo-shoot water minimally.

Preparation:

Cut the pork into medium sized pieces and place it in a cooking pot. Add salt to it and enough water to immerse the pork. In a medium-high flame, cook the meat and salt for 30 minutes or until the pork is half cooked. Add the bamboo-shoot along with its water and stir the mixture until dry. Add some water and cook the meat until it is cooked or the water is almost dry. Add in the ginger and garlic paste, pepper (10-15 flowers) and chilli powder and stir for about 2-3 minutes. (Make sure there is just enough water in the dish so that it does not burn.) Add some more water and let it boil for another 5 minutes. The curry formed should be medium thick. Serve hot with rice.

[ Try it.  If some one kick you from behind,  you will not leave the Thevo Chu table then also.]