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Bohag Bihu
Assam's new year, with pitha, laru and a dish of herbs and greens, including bhut jolokia cooks use sparingly.
Spices for Bohag Bihu
Bohag Bihu is the spring new year of Assam, and its first day (goru bihu) honours cattle. The food leans on rice cakes (pitha) and laru, sweets of sesame and jaggery, as well as a famous ritual of eating 101 types of leaves and herbs for health. Assamese cooking uses little dry spice but plenty of fresh aromatics, pungent mustard oil and the ghost chilli (bhut jolokia), once among the hottest known, in fiery pickles and chutneys that appear at the festival table. Alkaline khar made of banana ash is a signature flavour.
The spices
Also part of it, and being written: Bhut jolokia (Assam's very hot chilli, used in pickles and chutneys.), Mustard oil (The pungent cooking fat of eastern India.).
Written by the EveryMasala desk with AI assistance. Background: "Rongali Bihu" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.