A cup of Assam Tea

 We have just greeted a new year and bid adieu to the holiday season. But the holiday's good, scrumptious food is still in the mind. If you follow my blog, you may know that at this time of year, my home state, as well as many parts of India, celebrates the end of the harvest season, similar to Thanksgiving; we call it Magh Bihu or Bhogali Bihu. While other parts of India call it Lohri, Pongal, etc. Magh Bihu/Bhogali Bihu is all about celebrating and sharing good food with loved ones. In today's time and period, gathering and sharing food with family is not as easy or safe as it once was, thanks to the omicron variant, but staying home and cooking for your family is always a good idea. As for me, it is not possible to visit my family very often because of the distance, but giving my family a festive or Bihu feel or bringing a bit of home always makes me happy.  A few years ago, I shared the Assamese sesame chicken recipe on my blog, which had a slightly thicker gravy base. To...

There are days when my taste buds ask for something rustic, rugged, totally country style, something that brings that nostalgic flavor, more precisely, brings me to our home kitchen in Assam, my grandma's kitchen, my mama's kitchen. Yup, sesame chicken is in my mind. My Assamese taste buds are so amicable with till or sesame seeds; name a festival or staple cooking time, and it is a desirable ingredient. I love that in today's new age, healthy cooking promotes and incorporates seed-eating, especially sesame, for numerous health benefits, which I was fortunate enough to grow up eating. Once you taste this exotic dish with its rustic and nutty flavor, you will definitely try it again. Today I am sharing my recipe.. Have you tried Assamese Chicken Curry . Ingredients 2 lb chicken cut into medium-sized pieces with bone 5 tablespoons of till or sesame 3 tablespoons mustard oil or olive oil, you can use any other cooking oil too but I love to use thick oil as...

You can't imagine a soulful Assamese meal without a fish curry. The fish curry transports me to my Grandmother's kitchen. I tiptoed entered the kitchen and wearing mekhela chadar  the affectionate lady a few dots of turmeric here and there on her clothes, frying fish and making curry, and she caught me and trying to feed me bite by bite and from our garden night jasmine exuding fall fragrance what a soulful sight. It was more than 30 years those smell, place, gestures felt like yesterday.  Let me tell you my grandmother made the world best curry and then my mom.  Lost my grandmother at the age of five. I was so little that I couldn’t learn my grandmother's recipe but my mom taught me how to make a good fish curry. In my assamese household as a child, we used to eat fish way more often than chicken. As an expert cook my mom made fish with all kinds of veggies. Her fish curry is very delicately prepared. She always says, to make a good fish curry you have to be ...

Sometimes certain aroma, fragments of a song brings back the myriads of memories . Whenever I prepare payash it brings back lovely memories of home and childhood. In our assamese household, every occasion and celebration  always asks for preparing payash. Whether someone got a promotion or passed an exam or its a birthday , ah here you go the delightful delicious payash. Sometimes you don't need any occasion, just make payash and make yourself entertain. A special occasion payash is always little elaborate, pound the cardamom, chop the nuts and dry fruits, add the bay leaf and soak the rice for half an hour before cooking luscious flavor. But when guest come over without notice or you just crave for it, it does not require elaborate preparation. I thought today I will share the Assamese payash or rice pudding recipe. In this recipe, I used jaggery instead of sugar for more rustic and healthy aspects. I used my instant pot, the traditional payash requires so much patience and st...

      Hope you all had a great week and great Diwali for those who celebrate. This year Diwali fell in mid of the week. After coming back with kids from there after school activities, I was running late but had already done some preparation for a few things, a few days back. In India, Diwali is a holiday, and here in the USA, it's a regular weekday.       But I just could not let go the joy of lighting diyas with my family,  relishing good food and decking up for Diwali dress. I made a festive dinner and lighted diyas with my kids. This year I successfully avoided refined flour and white sugar. Didn't felt must of a  difference. On the weekend, we had one lovely dinner with old friends and another at our place with some new friends. Loved the lighting, the laughs and sharing food with old and new friends.       Presenting you a little bit of our Diwali celebration. I am wearing a light pink sharara with gota work ac...

      I don't remember how the word tea entered into my life, perhaps even before my birth. When I was deciding on a name for my blog, the moment "A cup of Assam tea" came to my mind, it stuck firmly. You probably know, I originally come from Assam, India, where I was born and brought up till my 20 and moved to the USA 15 years back. Assam is the highest tea producing state in the world. My mom has a tea connection. Both my maternal grandfather and great-grandfather worked for Assam tea company, later my maternal uncle owned tea gardens. I grew up hearing those tea garden stories and tea tribe stories of struggle as a lullaby from my mother. Our ancestral house in Assam is in the midst of tea garden. Those memories of quaint lush green tea, I always carry within me, even after moving to the USA to stay with me forever. The smell of tea, the memory of those two leaves one bud tea, labors music during festival floating in the air and buzzing in the ear.   ...

      I grew up in the mid-80s and early 90s Assam, India where we celebrated our birthday parties with home made food even the cake was made by our moms. There was no elaborate decorations or video games or pizzas. However, our happiness or celebration was not any less than today's birthday. As every childhood has its own charming tale. Those were the days indeed.       In those times, the menus were fixed almost for every household. Crisp Luchi (fried dough) was a must have for a birthday or any other celebrations accompanied with green gram thick velvety gravy and succulent tomato chutney (bilahir tok). The other day my daughter completed five years. It was on a weekday, and we celebrated it at home, and on Saturday she is going have her actual birthday party with friends. I thought why not celebrate it in our old back home way, how we used to. Just like my mom, I made luchi and quintessential bilahir tok. They say, you re-live your childhood ...