Photo: Gannu03 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Assam · Breakfast

Sunga Pitha

Traditional 5. Sunga Pitha recipe

🧺 Ingredients

• 300g Bora Saul (sticky rice), soaked 4 hours
• 80g Assamese gur (jaggery), grated
• 50g fresh coconut, grated
• 4 young bamboo tubes (sunga), approximately 30cm long, 5cm diameter
• Banana leaves for sealing

👩‍🍳 How to make Sunga Pitha

1. Prepare filling (10 mins, no heat): Drain soaked sticky rice well. Mix with grated jaggery and fresh coconut — the mixture should be moist and clump together when pressed.
2. Fill bamboo tubes (10 mins, no heat): Pack the rice mixture firmly into young bamboo tubes, filling to about 3cm from the top to allow expansion. Plug the open end tightly with a piece of banana leaf, securing with a strip of bamboo.
3. Roast over open fire (40 mins, high heat): Place filled sunga tubes upright over glowing embers or directly in a wood fire, rotating every 10 minutes. The bamboo will char on the outside and the steam inside will cook the rice. When the bamboo is uniformly charred and a skewer inserted into the rice comes out clean, it is done. Split the bamboo to extract the pitha — it will have a delicate smoky, coconut aroma.

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