Culinery secrets from the Northeast

With Christmas around the corner, kitchens around the world are busy whipping up tried and tested delectables like plum cakes, cookies, bars, pies and roasted meats. But for Dr Alana Golmei, from the Zeliangrong Naga tribe in Tamenglong, Manipur, nothing spells Christmas more than naphoi gan – a bubbling pot of which has rice paste, meat, and whole spices stewed to a gooey goodness of flavours and good health.

What naphoi gan is to Golmei's Christmas, maasor tenga is to Bihu. In Assam, Bihu takes precedence over Christmas, and maasor tenga is a tangy broth of vegetables and rohu fish, a staple in Assamese cuisine.

Golmei's much-cherished recipe of her favourite childhood dish and the maasor tenga are some of the many recipes that find place in Purabi Shridhar and Sanghita Singh's The Seven Sisters: Kitchen Tales from the North East. Shridhar, who is from Shillong, has been in Delhi since 1998, and has worked for some of the best newspapers in the country.

"Northeast, for the common India, is this exotic land where dogs and monkeys are delicacies," laughs Shridhar. "We wanted to humanise the food of the region."

So, Shridhar along with Singh, started collecting stories and recipes from all the seven states in 2012. "We did not come up with recipes with a trial-and-error method. We wanted the tried and tested ones," she says. They sent out thousands of mails and made several calls to put together a definitive northeastern cookbook. The book has recipes of some of the most popular dishes in each of the seven states, back ended by a primer on each state. These recipes are not of the authors' but of people from the state, and each recipe has a personal history behind it. The book also has a glossary of some common ingredients in their local names.The maharani of Kawardha Kirti Kumari shares her recipe of crisp-fried soya bean from the kitchen of her father's palace in Tripura cooked by their extraordinary head chef, Nana Champa. It is a simple recipe with five ingredients, and as the princess says, "is legendary in its simplicity". There's also a recipe of a no-frills chicken soup by boxer Mary Kom.

Sharing her recipe from her mom, the chicken soup is Mary's usual go-to, and has six ingredients. For Sanghita Singh, currently a journalist with a magazine, the book has been a rewarding and emotional experience. Her tryst with the northeast began in the hostels of Delhi University where she shared everything from food and clothes to stories with friends. "The book has been, in a way, a tool to trace many friendships," says Singh. She is particularly thankful to former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Jarbom Gamlin and his wife Reibom, a close friend, who helped her a lot with the book. "Two weeks after the book was launched, Jarbom passed away. We will always remain in debt for all the help he gave us," she says.

Chef Atul Lahkar, a known figure in Assamese cuisine who runs a restaurant called Khorika Heritage in Guwahati, feels there has been a change in perception lately. More than 60 per cent of the people who come in to his restaurant are from outside the state, he says. "Everyone wants to try our food now. It is a healthy change from the time they all thought all we ate were dogs and pigs."

"Our geological atmosphere is different than the rest of the country, and culturally our food has Mongolian influences. Hence, the emphasis on boiled, steamed and roasted food," he adds.

Most northeastern food does not use oil, and those dishes that do require the bare minimum. "Our food is heavily linked to our lifestyles, and to the nature we live in. Seasonal changes are celebrated with festivals, and every celebration is incomplete without food," says Lahkar, whose recipes are part of the soon-to-be-released book on Indian cuisine by Gordon Ramsay. Singh, exasperated by the limited knowledge of northeastern cuisine, says triumphantly: "Northeastern food is India's answer to sushi."

Recipe: Thombou Shingju

Ingredients
3 lotus stems, cleaned, 3 tbsp brown sesame seeds, 3 tbsp gram flour, ½ tsp freshly ground dried red chillies, 50 gm spring onions, chopped, salt to taste, coriander leaves for garnish
Method
Slice the lotus stems finely into juliennes. Roast the sesame seeds on a dry tava or griddle on low-moderate heat till golden brown. Do not over-roast them, as they can turn bitter. Grind the roasted sesame seeds in a mixer to make a fine powder.Roast the gram flour on the tava or griddle till it releases a fragrant aroma. Combine all the ingredients, except the garnish, in a bowl and mix well. Garnish with coriander leaves and toningkhok (optional). Serve immediately.