KASHMIRI NATH is an Assamese Food Chronicler and a Guest Chef who passionately promotes Assamese cuisine through her many pop-ups and food festivals all across the country. She is the founder of the North East Food Forum. She has served dignitaries, celebrities and guests with traditional Assamese cuisine. She is also an avid food blogger and baker who organises workshops to teach the fine nuances of cooking and eating consciously.
Follow her Instagram handle @Kashmirinath
Meetha aloor pitha
Ingredients:
• Sweet potatoes.................. 4 or 400 gms
• Milk powder (optional).......... 2 tbsps
•Pitha guri (rice flour)......... 2 tbsps
•Saunf powder.................... ½ tsp
• Nuts, chopped................... 2 tbsps
• Salt............................ ½ tsp
• Oil............................. for frying
For the syrup:
• Sugar........................... 1 cup
• Water........................... 1 cup
• Cardamom powder................. ½ tsp
Method: Boil, peel and mash the sweet potatoes, until smooth. Add the milk powder, the rice flour, the saunf powder and salt and make a smooth dough. Take small portions of the dough and flatten them on the palm of your hand, place a small amount of chopped nuts in the centre and then roll into an oblong shape and keep aside on a plate. Do the same with the remaining dough.
Heat the oil in a pan until smoking hot, then gently add a few of the sweet potato pithas and deep fry, until golden. Drain on paper towels. Fry all the pithas.
Meanwhile, place the sugar and water in a pan and bring to boil. Add the cardamom powder and boil rapidly until it thickens slightly. Keep aside.
Soak the fried pithas in the hot sugar syrup. Keep them soaked for 20 to 30 minutes.
Transfer to a serving platter before serving.
--------------------------------------------------------
Rongalau-diya-mangxo
(Assamese-style mutton cooked with pumpkin and potatoes)
Ingredients:
• Mutton, cut into cubes................... 1 kg
• Potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks..... 2 (medium-sized)
• Pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and cut into
chunks.................................. 200 gms
• Onions, finely chopped................... 2
• Garlic paste............................. 1tsp
• Ginger paste............................. 1tsp
• Turmeric powder.......................... 1 tsp
• Red chilli powder........................ 1tsp
• Green chilli paste....................... 1 tsp
• Pepper powder............................ 1 tsp
• Whole cumin seeds, soaked in water....... 2 tsps
• Mustard oil.............................. 4 tbsps
• Garam masala powder...................... 1½ tsps
• Salt..................................... to taste
• Water (hot).............................. 2 cups
• Ghee...................................... 1 tbsp
Method: Wash the mutton pieces, drain and place in a bowl. Add the ginger and garlic paste, the turmeric powder, and one tablespoon of the mustard oil. Mix well and keep aside.
Heat a large pan with the remaining oil and fry the potato chunks on high flame for five minutes and drain and keep aside. Do the same with the pumpkin pieces, drain and keep aside.
Add the onion to the same oil and fry, until golden and soft, add the chilli powder and stir for another one minute. Keep stirring so that it doesn’t burn.
Add the mutton and continue to fry on high heat for the first seven to eight minutes and then lower the flame to medium heat and continue to stir-fry, searing the meat pieces well.
Add salt and the chilli paste and cover and cook now. If the meat begins to get stuck at the bottom of the pan, add a little water and continue to cover and cook, stirring occasionally.
Make a paste with the soaked cumin seeds and add to the meat, stir again to mix well. The meat, by now, will have changed colour to deep red; add the water and cover and cook on slow flame for about 40 minutes. Checking once in a while; when the meat is almost cooked, add the potato pieces and cover and cook for another ten minutes.
Finally, add the pumpkin pieces and cook until soft but still holding shape and the meat is tender.
Add the garam masala and stir once more. Top it with the ghee and serve hot with steamed rice.
