Reviving the Tea Planters' Cuisine of Assam

Tanushree Bhowmick’s new book draws inspiration from her grandmother’s hand-written recipe book featuring over 100 Anglo-Indian recipes.

In Assam, he tea gardens have changed hands several times over the centuries. At present, corporates and private players dominate the space, and there are very few tea planter families left in the region; the few that remain, their younger generations have almost all settled abroad. A sad consequence of this is that the unique tea planter cuisine has almost disappeared from Assam.

Food researcher, and founder of Forktales, Tanushree Bhowmick has published a book in an attempt to remedy this. The book draws on her grandmother’s, Mrs. Aruna Chanda’s, (or Didubhai, as Tanushree calls her) hand-written recipe book, consisting of 110 Anglo-Indian recipes collected through interactions with the tea planters along the Brahmaputra.

Didubhai’s efforts at documenting Anglo-Indian food in Assam was meticulous. “A gift from Didubhai, [this book] is a treasure-trove of recipes. I decided to have it published so it is accessible to a wider audience,” says Tanushree. 93-year-old Didubhai was pleased with the prospect, and the book will be published soon. 

Colonial food history is a blind spot in Assam. With the prolonged presence of the English, and their experience in running tea plantations with the help of local communities, there must be a legacy of food. “We don’t know much about their life here and the impact of local food on their eating habits. Where did the food go?” wonders Tanushree.

Tanushree spent her school holidays with Didubhai, and remembers the afternoons spent learning to cook and bake alongside her grandmother — cakes, pastries, puffs, pulao with orange rinds, soups, stew, and cutlets with gravy. “I listened to tales of laying tables for formal dinners and daals served in gravy boats, memorising details, never thinking that these recipes were not exactly Indian. Running home in winter evenings to relish a bowl of piping tomato soup and butter-fried golden potato cubes seasoned with salt and black pepper, is one of my fondest memories of Didubhai’s cooking,” she shares.

Tanushree with Didubhai

The Early Years

Born and married into an illustrious family in Assam, Didubhai spent her life in Sibsagar amidst the tea gardens, a city famous for Ahom monuments, one of the largest Shiva temples in the country, and the oil industry. Didubhai was sharp, curious and had exacting standards for the way she ran her household.

She started documenting recipes after her marriage. She wrote in Bengali, in her husband’s writing pad during the early years, when she had fewer responsibilities. Later, instead of written recipes, there are magazine cut-outs. Some recipes include the list of ingredients and their measurements along with step-by-step instructions, while others are less-detailed. The ingredients are all local.

The pages are discoloured, and there are no notes, dates, or scribbling in the margins. Didubhai was never sentimental or personal. There is no information about the recipe sources. While there are no names of British planters, there are a few references to planters who were friends of Tanushree’s great-grandfather(s) or clients from the tea gardens around.

Her pursuit of documenting and cataloguing culture and history while tending to a large joint family as a housewife speaks volumes about her personality. Tanushree’s interactions with Didubhai were not only about recipes but this interest in culture and history.

“With an interest in cooking, the documentation of recipes was a natural progression,” she shares. Knowing Didubhai, Tanushree thinks that it wasn’t for any practical reasons, but just an interest in history. Collecting recipes is a family trait as both Tanushree and her mother continue to do so. "I think this is a natural aptitude, and we are all recipe collectors." 

Today, Didubhai is no more but her legacy lives on. Tanushree’s food pop-up 'Fork Tales' organises The Tea Planters Lunch, an annual event on an invite-only basis. “I owe my training in cooking, baking, table setting and basics of European cooking to her. Food, an integral part of my life, is Didubhai's blessing.”

Didubhai’s hand-written recipe for fish molu (moliee)

Recipe for tomato ketchup

Recipe: Didubhai's Mutton Roast

 Ingredients
500 gm boneless mutton cut in large pieces
Potatoes, peeled and cut into halves (half the number of mutton pieces)
1 large and 1 small onion
1.5 inch ginger
1/2 cup curd
4-5 whole dry red chillies
3 whole green cardamom
6 cloves
1 inch cinnamon
1 bay leaf
4- 5 black peppercorns
1 tbsp + 1 tbsp brown vinegar
1/2 cup ghee
Finely chopped coriander
Salt to taste

Method
Wash and dry the mutton pieces and prick them all over with a fork.
Make a paste with the large onion and ginger.
Marinate the mutton with the curd, all the spices, 1 tbsp of vinegar and salt.
Set aside for at least 4 hours.
Finely slice the small onion and fry in ghee, until golden brown and crisp.
Drain and set aside. Reserve the ghee.
Boil the mutton and potatoes with the marinade and a cup of water till tender. Remove the dry red chillies halfway through before they disintegrate and set aside.
Drain the mutton, and potatoes and reserve the broth. 
Heat the reserved ghee. Fry the red chillies and carefully remove. Set aside.
Add the drained mutton pieces and potatoes and fry till evenly browned on all sides. 
Add the reserved broth, cover, and cook till the mutton is almost dry and the ghee starts floating on top. 
Stir the pot frequently so that the spices don't burn.
Add 1 tbsp of vinegar, the fried red chillies and remove from fire.
Garnish with fresh, chopped coriander and serve with parathas.

Nupur Roopa is a freelance writer and a life coach for mothers. She writes on education, environment, food, history, parenting, and travel.

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