Aakhol Ghor, the Assamese Cuisines and Foods from Assam

Its all about Food and Food Habits from the land of blue hills and red river, Assam.

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......

DISCLAIMER

Some famous Chef of India once said, " India is so unique, one can find three different recipes for the same chicken curry in the three houses lined in the same row. Every kitchen and every cook in India has it's own cook book, unlike rest of the world."
I personally feel it is so well said. Even in my case, you might find small to big differences in your known method of cooking and the ones posted here. I call them true Assamese for two main reasons, one: because of the spices used, and two: my granny knew nothing beyond her village ( she did not believe that cauliflower can be green, which is Broccoli). So whatever she cooked was passed on over generation. And my Mom finds it hard to believe anything can be cooked beyond her traditional methods( she is best at it, though she makes excellent Indo - Chinese things, invented). So please feel free to put in your comments / correction. One thing I can assure is I have cooked all these ( everything) myself with my own hands at least once. So whatever is here is tried and tested. You are always welcome to do your bit of experiment !!!!!

A Complete Assamese Lunch Platter ( Assamese Thali)


I am still researching on how many courses an Assamese Meal can be; however I will try to put up one full platter here. Assamese platters are normally served in typical Indian Thali Style in bowls.

One traditional assamese plate is made up of an alloy metal called Ka(n)h in assamese. This is a assamese copy write product as it is produced only in Assam. A royal or most respectful version is a High Plate with stands for bowls. This is called "Maiheng Kaahi". The next one is a normal plate with bowls. In a family the size of the serving plate decides the rank and respect of the member of the family. A very small sized and cute plates are normally for the eye candy of the family.

You seat on a "Bor Peera", it would be like a table but of the size of a seating mat and of about 4 to 6 inches in height. Eat from your plate and Drink from your own "Ghoti and Gilas". A Ghoti is a personalized water jug normally round in shape and a Gilas is a Water glass. Both of these are made of Pitol or Kaa(n)h.

Now the Items:



  1. Steamed Rice - Bhaat

  2. Xaak Bhaaji - Dry green leafy vegetable.

  3. Daal - Dail or Daali

  4. Khaar - A kind of veg / non veg item

  5. Bhaaji - Dry veg

  6. Torkari - wet veg

  7. Maasor Aanja - Fish Curry, normally sour (tenga aanja)

  8. Mandxor Jol - Meat or Chicken

  9. Chutney

  10. Some Fries - can be of various vegetables.

  11. Pitika - a side dish , kind of a mash.

  12. Asaar - achar or pickle.

I think I need to start some where in telling how to prepare all of the above.
so here we go............
Reactions: 

10 comments:

  1. AnanyaJanuary 30, 2008 at 1:01 PM

    Hi,

    I would really congratulate you for headstarting such a wonderful blog. I miss one of my favourite dishes in this site- kosu xakor jool .. Yummy!
    If its required, I can email you the receipe ...
    Bye,

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dev & LabhiJanuary 30, 2008 at 3:08 PM

    Thanks for your comment Ananya, Please do share your receipe with us :) keep visiting and posting your feedback

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousDecember 8, 2009 at 7:28 PM

    wonderful recipe and description of assamese culture, i do miss the duck meat ( hah mangso) and posala( banana) recipe, i can give the recipe
    Alankrita

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dev & LabhiDecember 11, 2009 at 9:29 PM

    Hi Alankrita,

    Thanks a lot for your comment. But you've not left your email id here. So not able to personally get back to you and posting our reply here.

    Well, its been sometime that we updated our blog and Hanhor Mangxo aru Komora (Duck meat with ) is open of the top pending recipe for long. If you have this recipe and want to share then you are most welcome. Do send your recipe to devlabhi (at) gmail (dot) com and we would be very happy to publish it for you.

    There is infact an older post for Kol Posola (Banana Stem) recipe. Please check it out.

    Thanks and keep visiting

    ReplyDelete
  5. PrazitMay 16, 2010 at 5:42 AM

    really great...... apunalukor podokhyep xosai proxongxoniyo!!!!
    great step to bring assamese food to the web!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dev & LabhiMay 17, 2010 at 6:07 PM

    Thanks a lot Prazit.. do keep visiting and posting

    ReplyDelete
  7. Rajesh KumarJune 16, 2015 at 3:33 PM

    This looks seriously fantastic! I would feel great eating this!
    order online food delhi


    ReplyDelete
  8. priya quehinSeptember 8, 2015 at 2:50 PM

    Hey hii.. Can I upload a recipe here?? plz reply

    ReplyDelete
  9. Shrutimala GoswamiOctober 12, 2015 at 8:50 AM

    Verry good.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Vemula MadhuDecember 19, 2015 at 10:37 AM

    perfect lunch
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    ReplyDelete

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