Traditional recipes

A light, tangy Assamese fish curry soured with tomato, lemon or elephant apple.

The signature Assamese dish: raw papaya and pulses cooked with kola khar, an alkaline liquid filtered from the ash of dried banana peel.

Boiled potato mashed with raw mustard oil, onion, green chilli and coriander, the simplest and most loved Assamese side dish.

Brinjal roasted over a flame until smoky, mashed with mustard oil, onion and chilli.

Roasted or boiled fish mashed with mustard oil, onion and chillies, a quick and flavourful Assamese side dish.

Thin rolls of sticky rice flour toasted on a pan and filled with sesame and jaggery, the best-known sweet of Magh Bihu.

Small fried cakes of rice flour and jaggery, crisp outside and soft inside, made for Bihu and as a tea-time snack.

A soft rice-flour cake filled with coconut and jaggery, steamed on a cloth tied over the mouth of a water pot (tekeli).

Balls of fresh coconut cooked with sugar or jaggery, made in every Assamese home for Bihu.

Small balls of roasted sesame bound with jaggery, a warming winter sweet for Magh Bihu.

Flattened rice soaked and served with thick curd and jaggery, the classic Assamese breakfast and Bihu jolpan.

Boka (soft) rice that needs no cooking: it softens in cold water and is eaten with curd, milk or jaggery.

Sticky rice packed into green bamboo tubes and cooked over a fire, then sliced and eaten with curd, jaggery or meat.

Rice soaked, steamed or parched, dried and pounded into a fragrant powder eaten with milk, curd and jaggery.

A creamy milk pudding made with Assam’s small, fragrant joha rice.

Cooked rice soaked overnight in water, eaten in the morning with salt, mustard oil, onion, chilli and pitika.

Duck cooked slowly with ash gourd, ginger and spices, a rich Assamese festive curry.

Pork cooked with sour, fermented bamboo shoot, ginger and chilli, a favourite in many communities of Assam.

Fish coated with mustard paste and spices, wrapped in banana leaf and cooked on a pan or over embers.

Crisp fritters of fresh fish roe mixed with onion, chilli and a little rice flour.

Chicken cooked in a thick, dark gravy of roasted and ground black sesame.

Whole or split black gram cooked soft with ginger and a light tempering, an everyday dal of Assam.

Red lentils cooked with slices of outenga (elephant apple), giving a gently sour dal for hot days.

Tender mustard greens stir-fried lightly with garlic and green chilli, keeping their colour and slight bitterness.

The curled young fronds of the dhekia fern, stir-fried with garlic and chilli or cooked with potatoes.

The tender core of the banana stem, chopped finely and cooked with potato, gram and a light tempering.

Ripe tomatoes cooked down with jaggery or sugar and a little mustard, served at the end of a festive meal.

Fermented bamboo shoot pickled in mustard oil with chilli and spices, sour and pungent.

Strong Assam tea brewed without milk, often with a little sugar, served throughout the day in Assamese homes.

A Bodo curry thickened with ground rice, cooked with chicken or vegetables and flavoured with ginger and green chilli.

Dried jute leaves cooked with pork and a little alkali, giving a slightly bitter, earthy Bodo curry.

Crunchy balls of puffed rice bound with melted jaggery, made for Magh Bihu.