Assam -- Labra (Mixed Vegetable Curry)

Blogging Marathon# 39 - Indian States: Day 3
State: Assam
Dish: Labra

Assam is a state in the North eastern part of India. It is located south of the Eastern Himalayas and comprises of the Brahmaputra and the Barak river valleys. It is surrounded by the six of the other Seven Sister States. Geographically Assam and the other sister states are connected to India via a narrow strip of land in West Bengal called the Silguri Corridor or 'Chicken's neck' (this is something new to me and wanted to share with all of you)

Cuisine: Because of the geographical location, Assam has both the mountains and plains which influence their style of cooking. It is a confluence of cooking habits of the hills that favor fermentation and drying as forms of food preservation and those from the plains that provide fresh vegetables and abundance of fish from the many rivers and ponds that run through the state. The cuisine is characterized by very little use of spices, little cooking over fire and the preparations are rarely elaborate.

Staple Food: Rice, Fish, Meat & Vegetables.

Specialties: Tenga (light and sour fish dish), Pura (Assamese version of smoked or barbecued meat or fish), Pitika (side dishes), Bor-a etc.,

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Assamese Kordois (Sweet & Savory Versions)

It has been quite some time that I took part in Indian Cooking Challenge. I either don't find time to make the dish or I totally forget making it on time. I end up blaming my super-busy travelling hubby or my jumping & bouncing around kids for my forgetfulness.

But for this month's Indian Cooking Challenge, Valli asked me to pick a dish and as usual I forgot to mail her back on time (oops). But the ever gracious Valli sent a reminder email and that is when I remembered Sunita's awesome blog and asked Valli if we can try any Assamese dishes. Finally we ended up choosing Kordoi.
Lucky for me, my mom is here visiting us and she actually ended up making them for us. Sweet version of these Kordois are same as Panasathonalu made in A.P. Savory version was new to us, but we really enjoyed the spicy ones as well.

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