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LoginCelebrate Bohag Bihu Festival With The Sweet Payokh, Poka Mithoi And More
13/04/202613/04/2026
The term 'Rongali' derives from the Assamese word 'Rong', meaning joy or celebration, and 'Bohag' refers to the first month of the Assamese calendar. During this festive period, there are many sweets as part of the celebrations. While pitha is synonymous with the Assamese festival of Bihu, beyond this festive staple, there are other, simpler and wholesome sweets that are a staple of this spring festival (Rongali or Bohag Bihu).
Rongali Bihu 2026 falls on April 14-15, and on this special occasion, Assamese families spend days before the festival preparing a variety of sweets and festive meals that have been part of their routine for generations. Assam, being an agrarian society, all three Bihus – Rongali (Bohag), Kongali (Kati), and Bhogali (Magh) – are linked to agriculture.
Rongali Bihu is celebrated when the cultivation season is at a pause, allowing farmers to relax and rejoice. It is a time when food stocks are abundant, and communities come together to celebrate prosperity and hope. So, for this article, putting the pitha aside, here are some sweet foods that Assamese people consume for Bihu.
Sira doi gur is the simplest, most essential sweet preparation of Rongali Bihu. It requires no cooking and just three ingredients, as the name suggests – flattened rice (chira or sira), curd (doi), and jaggery (gur). No Bihu morning is complete without it.
How to make it:
Rinse the chira in warm water and soak for a few minutes.
Squeeze out the excess water.
Place in a bowl and top with thick doi and a portion of jaggery.
The jaggery seeps into the softened, flattened rice, and the whole thing is eaten cold, usually first thing in the morning, before any cooked food.
Narikol means coconut in Assamese, and laru means ball or ladoo. Celebrations of Rongali Bihu in Assam would be incomplete without narikol laru, the Assamese name for coconut laddoos. Freshly grated coconut is mixed with jaggery syrup, then cooked and rolled into balls.
Key ingredients:
Freshly grated coconut
Jaggery (or sugar)
Cardamom
How to make it:
Cook jaggery with a small amount of water until it reaches a sticky, single-string consistency. Pour the syrup over the grated coconut and mix well.
Return to low heat and cook, pressing the mixture down constantly, for around 15-20 minutes.
When the mixture is cool enough to handle, shape it into balls using your hands. Undercooked larus will not hold their shape; overcooked ones become too hard.
The laru can be made with either fresh coconut or desiccated coconut, though fresh gives a better texture. A traditional favourite at Bihu, narikol laru can be made with just two ingredients: coconut and jaggery.
Where narikol laru uses coconut, tilor laru builds from sesame seeds or til. Tilor larus are small, sweet balls made with melted jaggery and roasted sesame seeds, with a nutty, caramelised flavour, densely packed and deeply satisfying, perfect for Rongali Bihu celebrations.
Key ingredients:
White or black sesame seeds
Jaggery
Cardamom
How to make it:
Dry-roast the sesame seeds in a pan on medium heat, stirring continuously, until they turn golden and begin to release their fragrance. Do not let them darken.
Separately, melt jaggery with a small amount of water until it forms a thick syrup.
Mix the roasted sesame seeds into the hot jaggery syrup and add cardamom.
Work quickly while the mixture is still warm and malleable, shape into balls using oiled palms. The mixture hardens as it cools, so be quick.
Poka mithoi is less well-known outside Assam than its coconut and sesame counterparts, but it is one of the most popular sweets associated with Janmashtami and Rongali Bihu. Mithoi means ladoo in Assamese.
Key ingredients:
Roasted rice flour
Jaggery
Pepper (freshly ground)
Cardamom.
How to make it:
Soak the rice for 3-4 hours, drain well, spread on a kitchen towel to dry, and pound to a fine powder. Sieve through a very fine sieve.
Roast the rice powder in a heavy-bottomed kadai until a sweet aroma comes out, stirring continuously. Remove from heat and mix in freshly ground pepper.
Make a syrup of jaggery and water on a slow flame, then mix a little of this syrup into the rice powder to make firm, round balls.
Dust the balls with roasted rice powder and store in an airtight container.
Poka mithoi has a somewhat bad reputation because it sometimes hardens too much. As the laru cools, you can reshape them if you aren’t satisfied with the way they look. The idea is to get them into some shape before the mixture cools, then fine-tune it later.
Payokh is the Assamese name for rice kheer, simmered in milk until thick, sweetened with sugar or jaggery, and flavoured with cardamom and bay leaf. It shares the same sentiment as Bengali payesh or Tamil payasam, expressed through Assamese recipes. At Rongali Bihu, it is served as a dessert at the main meal.
Key ingredients:
Rice (Joha saul for its fragrance, or bora saul for a richer, stickier texture)
Full-fat milk
Sugar or jaggery
Bay leaves
Cardamom
Raisins
Dry fruits
How to make it:
Wash and soak the rice for 30 minutes.
Bring the full-fat milk to a boil in a heavy-bottomed vessel.
Add bay leaves and cardamom, then add the drained rice.
Keep the flame on medium-low, stirring frequently to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom. Leave it slightly watery, as the rice tends to absorb liquid even after being removed from the heat.
Garnish with dry fruits of your choice. You can serve it warm or cold.
When made with jaggery instead of sugar, the payokh takes on a slightly darker colour and a more molasses-like sweetness that many prefer during Bohag Bihu mornings.
Food is at the soul of Rongali Bihu, from the no-cook sira doi gur to the time-intensive payokh, which represent the full range of Assamese sweets aside from the typical pitha preparations that are a staple of Bihu food. All of these sweet dishes use simple ingredients and have simple combinations. Most of them require only rice, jaggery, coconut, and sesame, staples of any Assamese kitchen.
