Day 8 - Manipur

Hi friends, 

Today another north east state - Manipur. Manipur literally means jewelled land. The state is known for its traditions, dance, music and cuisine. 

Day - 8 Manipur 

Just like every other north eastern state, even Manipur is heavily non vegetarian .Rice is the staple diet. They too use fresh produce, fermented foods and bamboo shoots a lot. One thing that was common to all recipes was chives. It is similar to spring onions. Most of the recipe starts with frying bay leaf, jeera,ginger and garlic in oil . Oil is sparsely used but they too have Bora which is similar to pakoda.

Their recipes taste very different as they have minimum masala and lots of local herbs, fresh  greens. 

Today I have made 

Chak angouba

This is similar to a pulao made with leftover rice. Rice is mixed with usual temperings as above with turmeric powder, coriander powder, chilli powder and onion and cooked in a pan with lots of greens. 

Aloo kangmet

Boiled potato is mashed with fried red chillies and salt.If wanted  fried onions are added.

This is similar to Assam's aloo pitika but red chillies are fried and used here. 

Sana thongba

This is a paneer dish with usual temperings and turmeric powder simmered in milk. This is similar to kashmir's chaman kaliya- yellow paneer. Even though they are similar , usage of basic spices changes the taste a lot. 

Mangal ooti

This is a subji made with white peas which is soaked and boiled. It is mixed with usual temperings and cooked with onion and tomato.  Here too only coriander powder, chilli powder is used.

Other than these recipes, there are some vegetarian snacks like keli channa( dry channa recipe with onions and tomatoes) and Bora (pakora).

I added some vegetables to the pulao to make it a meal.