Panch Phoron Taarkari

Indian State: Tripura
Capital City: Agartala
Official languages: Kokborok & Bengali
Dominant ethnic groups: Bengali, Manipuris, Tripuris, Jamatia and others
Chief crop: Rice
Name: The name "Tripura" have variants like Twipra, Tuipura and Tippera. One of the suggestions is that the name "Tripura" may have come from two Kokborok words - "Tui" and "Pra" which mean water and near respectively, referring to the boundaries of the region that were once extended to the Bay of Bengal.

I found an interesting link here about northeast Indian tribes, while searching online for the region's cooking. Check it out if you are interested.

Now lets move to the last northeast Indian state left in this marathon, the state of Tripura. My assumption that Northeastern Indian cuisine is relatively unknown among other Indian regions got strengthened when I went scouring for recipes online and in Indian cookbooks. Surprisingly, there are not many bloggers who are native to the region that can share authentic local cuisine, especially the vegetarian stuff. I already knew that the people from the region are predominantly non vegetarian but my notion that vegetarianism and non-vegetarianism go hand in hand in most of the Indian states was proved wrong as I kept learning more and more about their cuisine for this marathon. It was shocking to note that the native tribes of most of the regions consume anything that once walked, crawled or flew. As the rest of the Indian states use spices in their dishes, their recipes tend to add fish / meat in even vegetarian dishes. 
Keeping that aside, the vegetables and the ingredients used in their cooking are pretty much available only locally. For some states, I could only get the names of the dishes rather than the recipes itself . They all seemed so alien and it was hard to guess what went into them. And so even though I am not a great planner when it comes to these cooking marathons, I searched for recipes and finished cooking for 5 of the northeastern states well in advance and bookmarked for the rest. 
This panch phoron taarkari - a simple and tasty vegetable preparation using the panch phoron mix was one of them. Taarkari means vegetables and panch phoron mix being a whole spice blend using five ingredients - mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds and nigella seeds. The mix is typically used in east Indian cuisine and since ethnic majority of Tripura happens to be Bengalis, I thought this dish would be more suited to Tripura post. Even though it sounds cliched, I must admit that I had zero expectations when I cooked this but surprisingly it turned out very yummy. I liked manipuri khichdi and this curry the most among the northeast Indian cooking I have tried during this marathon. 
  
Ingredients:
1 - 2 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds (rai)
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi)
1/2 tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
1/2 tsp nigella seeds (kalonji)
2 dry red chillies, broken into bits
2 bay leaves
2 green chillies, chopped
1 cup peeled and cubed pumpkin 
2 potatoes - peeled and cubed
1 brinjal - cubed
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp sugar
Salt to taste
2 tbsp milk

Method:
* Heat oil in pan and add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, fennel seeds, bay leaves and red chillies. When the mustard seeds start to pop, add green chillies and saute for about 20 seconds.
* Next add the vegetables, sugar, salt and turmeric to the pan and mix thoroughly with a spatula.
* The recipe said to add enough water and milk at this stage to cook the vegetables but I didn't find the need to add any. I cooked the vegetables in a non stick pan, covered it and found the oil I added was enough to cook the vegetables. I added the milk at the end.
* Simmer until the vegetables are done and the water/milk is absorbed.  
* Serve it with rice / rotis.

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Koat Pitha / Banana Pitha

The northeast Indian state of Nagaland obviously is the land of Nagas. The Nagas were originally referred as Naka in the Burmese language, which means "People with pierced noses". The state is covered by lush mountains and has a largely monsoon climate. 

Besides the wiki link, I found some other interesting links here  and here related to food and culture of Nagaland. One interesting link here provided me an insight into the cuisine of Nagas. I could not help from reproducing that stuff below. 

"The primary occupation of the tribes was hunting and so meat became a chief component of the Naga cuisine. The meat enjoyed by them include beef, pork, fish, chicken, crabs, frog, snail, spider, insects, bee larvae, dog, cat, rat, birds, snake, spider, monkey, bear, and even elephant. Meat of dog and other wild animals are considered a delicacy. Pork meat is highly popular in this cuisine. Pork meat cooked with bamboo shoots is a popular dish of this cuisine. Smoked meat is prepared by keeping the meat above the fire or hanging on the wall of the kitchen for 2 weeks or longer, which could last for the whole year ahead. Apart from meat, bamboo shoots, lettuce, soya beans, mustard leaves, and yam leaves are also used in cooking. These ingredients are fermented and used to make various dishes. 
Each tribe has their unique dishes and the food between any two tribes is never the same. One important feature of the Naga cuisine is that the dishes are cooked by boiling the ingredients than frying. The meat is cooked using various methods - by smoking, drying or fermenting. Fermenting food is practiced in order to preserve the food. The food item is first boiled and then dried under the sun or near the fire. It is then wrapped in a banana leaf and stored for future use. 
The cuisine of Nagaland has largely remained free from influence of other cuisines. The dishes and the food have remained same over the ages, but the use of spice has been incorporated in the cooking to offer the dishes distinct taste and flavor. Chillies have an important place in naga cuisine and the nature of the food is hot and spicy. The ginger used in the Naga cuisine is spicy, aromatic and is different from the common ginger. Various local herbs and leaves are also used to spice up the dishes.
Nagas believe that certain meats have curative powers while some others are unclean and pass on their characteristics to human beings. They believe that dog meat cures pneumonia while a snake bite is cured by consuming a fluid of earthworms. Bee larvae, snails and frogs are believed to heal the skin and bones. Women are restricted from consuming monkey meat since they think that it turns them extravagant. Pregnant women are not allowed to consume bear meat since bears are not considered smart. Tigers/ leopards were not consumed as they believed that tiger was the brother of Man when the world was created."

Now let's move towards today's recipe. Koat pitha are deep fried sweet fritters prepared using rice flour and bananas. It is popular in several of the north-east Indian states including Nagaland. In fact, it is a popular dish prepared during the Assamese bihu festival. They are subtly sweet and can be put together real quick. The  recipes I found online were almost one and the same using a cup of rice flour and jaggery each and about 6 bananas. I tried a small portion since there are not many takers for sweet dishes at home. I also added some cardamom powder for flavor.

Ingredients: (yield 8 pithas)
1 big sized banana
6 tbsp rice flour 
1/4 cup powdered jaggery
Oil to fry

Method:
* Mash the bananas well in a bowl. Add the powdered jaggery to it and mix well. Take care that no jaggery lumps are present in the mixture.
* Gradually add rice flour to the mixture and make a dough.

* Heat oil in a saute pan and drop spoonfuls of batter into it.

* Fry on medium flame until golden brown, flipping in between.

* Remove them with a slotted spoon and drain on absorbent towels.

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Mizoram cuisine ~ Fried AshGourd

BM theme: Indian states
State: Mizoram
Capital City: Aizawl
Tribes: Mizos like Lushei, Paite, Lai , mara and others tribes 
Non-Mizo tribes like Bru, Chakma, Tanchangya, Arakanese
Official language: Mizo
Major religion: Christianity

The word "Mizoram" literally means the land of the hill people and the state is a land of rolling hills, rivers, valleys and lakes. I don't know how much of the information I found on wiki holds good in the present day scenario but it seems that Mizos are a close-knit society in a true sense. There is no class distinction and the village is like a big family. The Mizo code of ethics focus on something called "Tlawmngaihna" - which somewhat translates to the moral force which finds expression in self sacrifice for the service of others. They are hospitable, kind and unselfish and kind of obligated to help out each other in dire circumstances. 

The people here are basically non vegetarians. They love meat and tend to add them even to vegetarian dishes. Fish, chicken, duck and pork are the popular meats. Rice is the staple food and mustard oil is the preferred medium to cook. Bai is a popular dish served along with rice. It is prepared by boiling spinach with pork and bamboo shoots. Sawchair is another dish prepared using rice and pork or chicken. The food is mild and the vegetables are cooked simple in such a way that the nutrient value is retained. Most of the dishes are served on banana leaves, a traditional way in most of the Indian states and naturally recyclable.

Now to my recipe for today. I found this northeast Indian tribal dish under the name "Mai Kan or Fried Ash Gourd" in Pushpesh Pant's India Cookbook. I had seen earlier a northeast Indian recipe online that called white pumpkin / ash gourd as "Mairen" in the native language. Though the cookbook really has a good collection of Indian recipes, it is hard to not notice the errors regarding some of the recipe names. Some of the recipes with Telugu names have been associated with the neighboring state of Tamilnadu. And there are spelling mistakes too when it comes to the names of dishes - I guess due to the errors that may have occurred during compilation or printing processes. And so, I think this dish may be mairen not maikan.
I guess the dish can be a generic one to the whole region and belongs to no one particular state owing to the fact that the northeast Indian vegetarian recipes are kept basic and pretty simple. It doesn't include even the panch phoran seasoning. Chayote / green papaya or any other vegetable can replace ash gourd. Use a little water if cooking green papaya. 

Ingredients:
1 tbsp oil (preferably mustard oil)
2 - 3 dried red chillies, broken into bits
1 onion, chopped fine
1/8 tsp turmeric powder
2 cups peeled, de-seeded and cubed ash gourd
Salt to taste

Method:
Heat oil in a pan. Add red chillies and fry for few seconds. Add onion and turmeric. Fry until onion turns light brown. Then add ash gourd and salt. Fry until the ash gourd is tender.

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Tekeli Pitha

  
I was contemplating whether to sign up for this Indian States' based marathon or not because of the scare the northeast Indian states gave me. I knew it was predominantly non vegetarian and getting interesting vegetarian recipes seemed almost impossible. Assam state was the only exception where there were hoard of recipes online from authentic sources. 
After going through them, pithas caught my attention and a couple of varieties of pithas were the first dishes that got cooked for this marathon. Pithas are usually made with a batter of rice flour or wheat flour, which is shaped and optionally filled with sweet or savory ingredients. A pitha can be anywhere from an instant rice flour dosa to athirasam / ariselu. Depending upon the type of pitha prepared, they can be deep fried, slow roasted over a fire, steamed, baked or rolled over a hot plate. The savory varieties are eaten as breakfast or snack while the sweet varieties are reserved for desserts. 
I chose to go with tekeli pithas that I saw on the Assamese facebook page. Tekeli pithas are steamed rice cakes served over breakfast and there are again both savory and sweet versions of it. The savory version contains egg filling while the sweet one contains sweet coconut or black seseame seeds -jaggery. Pithas are prepared using a tekeli and hence the name. Tekeli being a clay pitcher with a long neck. I have given the method used by the locals and there are also online pictorial presentations how to prepare these pithas if anyone is interested. However I figured out that they can be just steamed like idlis and that's what I did. Traditionally, rice flour is prepared from scratch but store bought version works fine too.
It is hard to describe the taste of these pithas as I have never eaten anything similar. They were subtly sweet and it reminded me vaguely the chalimidi maybe because it is also made with rice flour.

Ingredients: (makes 5)
Rice Flour- 1 cup
Roasted scrapped coconut- 6 tbsp 
Sugar - 1/4 cup.
A pinch of salt 
Milk - little

Method:
* Combine together rice flour, coconut, sugar lightly with your fingers. Add water and milk just to bring the mixture together. Remember that a batter is not required here and we are looking for a coarse crumbly mixture. As I was preparing a small quantity of pithas and so used around 2 -3 tbsp milk to form the mixture. I didn't use any water.

Traditional method:
* Heat the water in a kettle. 
* Grease a kettle lid with butter. Fill it up with the rice flour mix.
* Tie the lid tightly with a muslin cloth and secure the top. Block the mouth of the kettle with another piece of cloth to prevent the steam from escaping.
* Place the lid on top of the boiling kettle of water and steam for about 20 minutes or until done.

How I did:

* I thought steaming in a cooker would be hassle free. I greased small cups / katoris and filled them with the rice flour mixture up to half, slightly pressing the mixture. 

* Place them in a pressure cooker without the whistle on and steam for about 20 minutes. 
* When done, remove them from the cooker, demould and enjoy.

* They are served warm with liquid molasses and cream / chilled sweet milk.

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Vegetarian Thukpa

Now we move to Arunachal Pradesh, the second state in the series. Arunachal pradesh is mostly covered by Himalayas and the name of the state literally translates to "The land of the rising sun" or "The land of the dawn-lit mountains". It lies to the north eastern side of India and is the largest one among the "Seven Sister States". Natives trace their origins to Tibeto-Burman and Mongoloid race.
Food in the state is very less spicy and bland in taste. To save the nutritional value, boiling is the preferred method of cooking. Crops like rice, wheat, millet, maize and sugarcane are the popular items that are used in cooking. Lettuce and bamboo shoots are also commonly used. The people in the region are predominantly non vegetarian. Rice forms a major component of Arunachali cuisine. Rice is a staple food along with fish, meat and green vegetables. Boiled rice cakes wrapped in leaves is a popular snack.  Apong - local drink made from rice or millet is also a famous tribal delicacy. (Info:wiki and other online sources)
While exploring the cuisine, I realized that thukpas and momos are popular in the region. Thukpa is popular among the monpa tribe though not a native creation. I decided to go with a vegetarian version of thukpa and followed Asha's recipe. I replaced the egg noodles and chicken with mixed grain spaghetti and toasted tofu. Bamboo shoots would be an authentic addition but I wasn't sure whether we prefer the pungency and skipped it. My husband is not a fan of watery, bland noodle soups and preferred it with loads of ketchup. 

Ingredients:
4 cups vegetable stock / water
1.5 to 2 cups chopped mixed vegetables (I used 1 carrot, 10 green beans, 1 small potato, 1 small tomato, 2 tbsp celery cubes
1 green chili, sliced lengthwise
A fistful of spaghetti noodles 
1-2 tsp oil
1/4 to 1/2 cup tofu cubes
1/2 tsp ginger slivered 
Salt & pepper to taste
Minced cilantro to garnish

Method:
* Bring vegetable stock or water to a boil in sauce pan. Add vegetables and green chili to the pan and cook until the vegetables are done.
* Bring half a gallon of water to a rolling boil. Add salt and spaghetti and cook until done. Drain and keep aside.
* Heat oil and toast ginger slivers until golden brown and keep aside. To the same oil, add the tofu cubes and toast until golden brown through out.
* Add the cooked spaghetti, toasted tofu cubes to the cooked veggies.
* Add salt, freshly cracked black pepper and turn off the stove. Let it sit for a minute.
* Garnish with cilantro and serve.



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