Bihu dinner with Gogoi family on 16 April 2010

Rongali Bihu, the Assamese festival in spring - and in a tiny village in North Yorkshire, the festive season was to be celebrated with family and friends. Elder daughter BG was home for the Easter holidays and the menu was designed around what she wanted to eat - she misses home cooking even though Trinity College, Oxford serves fabulous meals and Monday steak nights with fried camembert are not to be missed.

First time that 'karelas' - bitter gourd - have been on menu for guests. It is very much a hidden 'treasure'. The karelas were sliced very thinly, coated in a 'besan' (chickpea) batter and deep fried. Younger daughter loves karelas in this style. Was not sure how Bev and Malcolm would react to the taste. They were not quite over the moon but they did not reject the taste completely either. What is surprising is the amount of chillies this Yorkshire couple can tolerate after the last seventeen years of our cooking – the coriander and green chilli chutney was made with over twenty green chillies and they both loved it. Just making it made my eyes water.

A huge bag of potatoes ended up as potato straws. Not sure what the attraction of these freshly made 'crisps' are - normal bags of crisps lie around and nobody eats them. Make a plateful of these 'straws' and they finish within a few minutes. Had to keep hiding them from everyone so that there was enough left for sprinkling on the chicken and some to be passed around the table.

Elder daughter made the trifle. Could find none of the usual liqueurs - only some limoncello and kirsch were in the kitchen. Who drank all my liqueurs? Hmmm. So, mango pieces were macerated in kirsch before being joined by some sponge fingers drenched with passion fruit pulp and more kirsch, real custard, topped by mascarpone mixed with double cream and a final blanket of more passion fruit pulp!! It was alcoholic but delicious.

Elder daughter and Bev both love vermicelli. Bev loves it with nuts. And after twenty two years of marriage, a few months ago, husband said that he likes the milk ‘puddings’ without any nuts or raisins. Tough.

Sevian with nuts and raisins

Ingredients

50 grams salted butter

handful of cashews, pistachios and coarsely chopped almonds (quarter cup of each variety)

handful of raisins (quarter cup)

100 grams of vermicelli – sevian, broken into pieces – the longer they are, the more awkward they are to stir!

1 litre of hot milk – heated in the microwave

about half a cup of sugar

50 grams salted butter

Method

Melt about 20 grams of butter in a pan over low heat. Add the nuts and fry gently till the nuts are roasted and then take them out to drain on some paper kitchen towels. Do not fry till they get really brown – it should be a light sandy colour as the nuts continue to ‘toast’ even after they have been taken out of the pan. Throw away any remaining butter and clean the pan with a kitchen towel.

Melt the rest of the butter in the pan on a gentle heat. Add the vermicelli pieces and stir them around till they are coated in the melted butter. Continue toasting the vermicelli until they turn a few shades darker – but not the colour of chestnuts though! Do not turn up the heat.

Add the raisins and continue frying for a minute or two.

Now add the hot milk to the pan. Turn the heat to medium and let the mixture come to a boil. Add the raisins and half the nuts and continue cooking and stirring until the mixture has thickened until it is the consistency of double cream. Add sugar to taste and then add the rosewater.

Take off the heat and sprinkle with the remaining nuts.

As the mixture cools, it gets thicker. Serve warm or cold.

Do try to get the sevian - vermicelli - packet from an Indian/ Pakistani grocer. The Italian version of vermicelli is not really suitable for this dessert.