Bok Phoolor Bor

Bok Phoolor Bor 
(Bok Phool Fritters)

Assamese name : Bok Phool
Bangla name : Bok Phool
Bodo name : Bok Bibaar/Bob Bibaar
Hindi : Gaach Munga
Common name : Agati/Flower of the Humming bird tree
Scientific name : Sesbania grandiflora

Bok Phool is edible, very tasty. Blooms profusely during the months of May and June and are available in the local markets. 

They can be simply dipped in beaten egg and fried, tastes delicious. 

Another Method :

Clean the flowers by carefully removing the stamens and washing them gently. 

Make a batter of equal portions of rice flour and gram flour (besan). Add a little salt and chilly powder. Pour little water at a time as you go on stirring the batter. It should neither be too thick nor thin. Dip the flowers in this batter and deep fry. They'll be nice and crunchy. Serve hot. 

Bwrma Bedor Wngkhree

Some Bodo terminologies :
1. Bwrma Bedor : Mutton
2. Wngkhree : Curry
3. Jabrang : A spice popularly known as Sichuan Pepper

Ingredients :

Mutton 500 g, cubed, washed and pat dry

2 potatoes halved or cubed 

Paste of : 2 onions+8 pods garlic+little ginger

Paste of : 1 tbsp cardamom+cinnamon+clove

1 tsp turmeric

Salt to taste

1 tsp chilly powder(green chilly can be a substitute)

3 tbs mustard oil

2 bay leaves 

powder of 4 or 5 jabrang 

A bunch of fresh coriander, chopped

Method : 

Heat oil fry all ingredients till light brown, leaving aside mutton and potato.

Add mutton and potato, fry for some more time.

Pour 2 cups warm water and cook covered. Can be pressure cooked. 

Check salt. Gravy should be thick. 

Garnish with fresh chopped coriander and serve. 

Mughlai Paratha

Ingredients :
1. 250 g flour
2. 1 egg
3. 1/2 tsp baking powder
4. 1/2 kg ghee
5. 1 tsp sugar
6. 1/4 tsp salt
7. Warm water to requirement

 Method : 

Mix flour, 2 tbsp ghee, sugar, salt and baking powder well. 

Add egg and warm water(little at a time) and knead. Knead to get an extra soft dough. Keep the dough covered with a moist soft cloth for around 3 hours.

Take little ghee on your hand and go on kneading making 4 portions. 

Make balls and roll out quite thin like a roti. 

Smear ghee on the surface and sprinkle flour on it. 

Make a slit starting from the centre to the edge with the pointed knife. 

Go on rolling the roti, shaping like a cone and press between your palms to form a ball again. 

Roll out, but quite thick this time. 

Fry on tawa/pan with ghee. 

Mughlai Paratha is best to serve/eat with Mughlai Chicken. 

Nathoor Jwng Aloo Jwng

Nathoor Jwng Aloo Jwng (Shrimp with Potato)

A few Bodo terminologies :
1. Nathoor : Shrimp
2. Aloo : Potato
3. Jwng : With
4. Phoorannai : Smoked (Clean, wash and sun dry Shrimp for about an hour. Smoke over a fire spreading the Shrimp on a bamboo sieve which is suspended at a height with sticks. Keep stirring and turning so that the Shrimp is evenly smoked and do not get burnt.

Ingredients :

1 cup smoked Shrimp.  

Paste of : 1 onion+6 pods garlic+little ginger

Salt to taste

Turmeric to taste 

2 or 3 chillies (to taste), chopped 

3 tbsp mustard oil

2 medium potatoes, cubed 

2 medium tomatoes, chopped lengthwise 

Fresh coriander for garnishing

Method : 

Stir fry Nathoor in little oil with salt and turmeric, remove. 

Heat rest of the oil, fry paste and chilly. When pale brown, put in the tomato, salt and turmeric. Fry till done and add potato. Fry for a while, pour 2 cups of water. Cook covered, stirring occasionally. 

When potato is half cooked, add Shrimp. 

If required add some more water, cook covered. Check salt and gravy. 

Garnish with fresh coriander and serve.

This above picture is of a dish made of Thadoon (Root of Taro) with Smoked Shrimp (Nathoor gwran or Nathur gwran). Check Recipe  for the method of cooking.

Prawn Curry

During May-June, these river (Brahmaputra) prawns are available in the markets of Guwahati. They taste great cooked any way. Here is one way of preparing which my family loves.

Ingredients : 
                           6 prawns, shelled
                           paste of 1 onion+5 pods garlic+1 tsp mustard seed
                           1fresh green chilly, chopped (can be substituted by red chilly powder)
                           1 tomato, skinned and chopped
                           salt and turmeric to taste
                           a few fresh coriander leaves
                           few tbsp refine oil
Method : Smear prawn with salt and turmeric. Light fry and keep aside.
                       Heat oil, fry paste and green chilly. Add salt, turmeric. Add tomato when the paste turns brown. Fry till it turns deep brown and leaves sides of the pan. Pour water, stir well and drop the prawn. Cook covered till the gravy thickens.
Prawn turns hard if over cooked. Therefore, care should be taken while cooking or frying. While cooking this particular recipe, prawn can be dropped in the curry without frying before.
Serve garnished with fresh coriander leaves.

                       

Kathali Chapa / Kordoi

This is a delicious Assamese sweetmeat. Some call it Kathali Chapa(Champa) yet, others call it Kordoi. 

Kathali Chapa
Pic courtesy: internet

                                                                                         Kanak Chapa 

                                                                                  pic courtesy : Sudhin Dutt

                                                                                            Kathali Chapa 
                                                                                    pic courtesy : Sudhin Dutt

No wonder it is called so as the sweetmeat is made exactly like the flower 'Kathali Chapa'. 

Kordoi

Pic courtesy: internet

It is also called Kordoi as it looks like the Starfruit, known as Kordoi in Assamese.
It is popularly known as Elo-Jhelo too. 

Ingredients : Makes 26 Kathali Chapas 

                             For the dough :

                           1. flour 250 g

                           2. refine oil 4 tbsp

                             For sugar syrup :

                           1. sugar 1 and half cup

                           2. water 3 cups

                             For frying :
                           1. refine oil 400 ml

Method :

             Knead flour and refine oil well. Add water, little at a time and knead till the dough turns soft. Make small portions, roll out like puri. With a pointed knife cut the sides and make long slits like the above picture. Take the puri and press the top and bottom with your fingers. 

Heat oil and deep fry the Kathali Chapas, 2 or 3 at a time in low/medium heat. 

Boil sugar and water for the syrup. Keep stirring it, occasionally removing the scum that forms on top. The syrup should neither be too watery nor too sticky. 

Put in 3 or 4 Kathali Chapas at a time in the sugar syrup turn several times and remove. 

While doing this after several batches the water dries up from the sugar syrup. Put some water, stir and heat for some time till you get the same consistency again. 

Delicious and beautiful Kathali Chapas are ready to serve with a cup of tea. 

They can be stored for several days. 

Narikol Pitha

Another Assamese delicacy. Doesn't require much time to make this snack. Never knew the name, I simply call it Narikol Pitha.
Ingredients : makes around 18 pithas
                Half of a coconut, grated
                          Half cup sugar
                          1 cup flour
                          1 tsp baking powder
                          little water or milk
         For frying :
                         250 ml refine oil
Method :
             Ingredients can be either mixed together without roasting the coconut. But I roast coconut and sugar first and let it cool. Then mix rest of the ingredients and knead to a fine dough. Make equal sized balls and flatten them.
Deep fry the pithas in medium heat. Can be stored for several days.

Munday Mwigong

Herbs and vegetables are called Mwigong in Bodo. 

Bodos call it Munday, known as "Leheti" or "Paani Xaak" on the Upper region of Assam. Grows in water and swampy areas. 

Very popular among Bodos and perhaps one of very few herbs which is not cooked with meat or fish. Wasn't too sure of its taste or if it was at all edible when I first saw this herb growing in and by the sides of a stream. But it tastes great. This herb is available during the monsoons in the markets too. 

Ingredients : (serves 4)
                            a bunch of Munday
                            1 dry chilly
                            2 pods of garlic, crushed
                            1 tbsp mustard oil
                            salt to taste

Method : 
                     Clean, wash and chop the herb fine. Use only the tender stems and leaves. Heat oil, saute chilly and garlic for a minute and add the herb. Stir, add salt, cover and cook in low heat. It is normally cooked without adding water, but can sprinkle a few spoons if you feel it is taking longer to cook.

Munday mwigong is ready. Serve it as a side dish.

Vegetable Pie

Learnt this recipe from a friend. I use different seasonal vegetables to make this Pie. Veg Pie is one of my family's favourite. This is a vegetarian recipe, but can add an egg if you prefer.
Ingredients : This amount serves 5 to 6 portions

                           150 g paneer (cottage cheese), crumbled with hand

                           4 potatoes, boiled and mashed with salt+pepper powder+
                           2 cubes of cheese

                           4 cups mixed vegetables chopped/shelled (peas, carrot, cauliflower,
                           broccoli, bean, mushroom, capsicum), per boiled

                           1 tomato, cut into roundels 

                           1 onion grated

                           1 tbsp paste of ginger+garlic (can be used chopped fine)

                           50 g butter

                           2 cubes cheese

                           25 g mozzarella cheese

                           salt+pepper powder, to taste

                           1 egg (optional), beaten 

Method : Heat butter, leaving some aside. Fry onion, ginger+garlic paste. Put in vegetables, salt, pepper powder and grated cheese cubes. Mix and fry well, keep aside. 

Take a baking dish and butter it. Go on spreading the ingredients in the pie dish.
1st layer : mashed potato
2nd layer : lay the tomato roundels sprinkled with salt and pepper powder
3rd layer : crumbled paneer
4th layer : a few blobs of butter
5th layer : mixed vegetables (press with hand as you spread this layer)
6th layer : paneer again
7th layer : egg (optional)
8th layer : grate mozzarella cheese covering the dish (see above picture)

Heat oven. Bake for about 20 minutes or till the top of the pie turns golden.

Narikolor Poor Diya Bhoja Pitha

This is an Assamese Pitha of which I could never find a proper name. It is called by many names such as, 'Ordho Chandra Pitha', 'Joon Pitha', 'Na Joon Pitha', 'Joon Biri', 'Puli Pitha', 'Poor Diya Pitha', Bhoja Chandra', 'Bhoja Pitha', 'Bhoja Narikolor Pitha' and in lower Assam, 'Peraki'. But the best one I have ever heard is 'Kanmusori Pitha'. So, I finally decided to name it "Narikolor poor diya Bhoja Pitha", which means a fried Pitha with coconut filling.
This sweetmeat is made in almost all parts of the country. Its wonderful to know the names by which it is known at different places. In South it is called 'Sweet Samosa' or 'Thenga Samosa' (Thenga=Coconut), 'Gujhia', in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. In Maharashtra it is called 'Karanji' and in Goa, 'Nevris'.

Grated coconut

Ingredients : This amount makes 20 Pithas
                             For the filling :
                             1/2 coconut, grated
                             few cardamoms
                             1/2 cup sugar

                             For the dough (cover) :
                             2 cups flour
                             3 tbsp ghee or refine oil
                             little water

                             For frying :
                             1/2 ltr refine oil
                         
Method : Mix all the ingredients for filling and roast on low heat.

When done keep aside. 

Knead flour and refine oil well. Add little water at a time and keep kneading till the dough is soft. 

Make 20 equal portions. 

Method of shaping the Pitha, follow the above picture anti clock wise.

  

Roll out like puri, put little filling on it, fold and press the sides so that the filling can not come out. Now press the edges giving a twist with your finger. This gives the beautiful frilly edged look. 

Shape the Pithas and keep aside. 

Heat oil and deep fry the Pithas 3 or 4 at a time in medium heat till they are golden brown. 

This Pitha can be stored for a week. Serve them warm if you like, by heating for a minute in micro wave oven.