Khasi cuisine comes calling from the northeast of India

A well-seasoned medley of memories and meals from the densely forested Khasi Hills and in Bengal is a different kind of treat. The Khasi and Jaintia hills cover subtropical forest regions in Assam and Meghalaya. Growing up in these regions and with strong Bengali family roots opened up a variety of unique culinary experiences.

Dietary habits are not generally determined by political divisions, but by topography. For these reasons there are many similarities between the cuisine of Meghalaya, Tripura, Manipur on the Indian side of the border, and the Chittagong Hills and Sylhet, closest to them, now in Bangladesh. The daily fare is not dissimilar: rice, lentils, a vegetable, fresh or dried fish or meat with slight variations in the cooking. From essential spice mixes to forgotten dishes reinvented over time, from fermented delicacies like shidol in pumpkin leaves to a sizzling-pan roasted telapiya, from hearty fish stew to mouth-watering pork in plum sauce and from sweet-and -sour-fish roe ambal to a delicious tangerine payesh the book offers a variety of recipes and the family lores and stories associated with them.

Some of the popular Khasi and Bengali preparations I enjoy include:

• Doh Khlieh is a Khasi preparation of steamed pork brain mixed with chopped green chillies and onion. It is eaten with rice.

• Khleh Soh is A Khasi citrus salad. Could be a mix of citruses, or lemon and fresh lai saag with a dressing of mustard oil, green chillies, salt.

• Trout with Pepper and Garlic is a Khasi fish preparation with garlic, pepper and lime juice as marinade. In the absence of trout this could be cooked with medium sized river fish.

• Chingri Machher Malai Curry is a popular Bengali prawn preparation with coconut milk, flavoured with garam masala, onion and ginger paste and tomato puree.

• Kheer Komla is a Bengali dessert, called payesh, made of thickened milk and tangerines or oranges.

The writer is the author of the recently released Spiced, Smoked, Pickled, Preserved – Recipes and Reminiscences from India’s Eastern Hills. She can be found at Instagram

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