The Indian subcontinent · Volume 19, The Ash Pot, the Bamboo Basket and a Border the Map Draws Wrong

Smoked pork with fermented bamboo shoot

Name: Smoked pork with fermented bamboo shoot
Total time: 45 min
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: The Northeast, Assam and the Hill States
Ingredients: 200 g fermented bamboo shoot, bastenga, or a Southeast Asian sour bamboo shoot if the genuine article is unobtainable, washed; 400 g smoked pork, cut into bite sized pieces; 1 large onion, sliced; 1 thumb ginger, sliced; 3 garlic cloves, lightly pounded; A handful a handful of ginger leaves, kneaded by hand, if available; Enough to cover water, to cover; To taste salt, to taste; to serve plain rice, to serve

Nagaland, Zeliangrong Naga (Zeme, Liangmai, Rongmei)

Smoked pork with fermented bamboo shoot, a Naga signature: dark, deeply smoked pork belly cubes in a thin brown stew studded with pale strips of fermented bamboo shoot, the broth cloudy rather than clear.

Illustration

Time: 45 minutes

Researched: Researched from 121 sources in the brief

Nagaland's signature dish, associated specifically with the Zeliangrong Naga communities, Zeme, Liangmai and Rongmei, at the point where Assam, Manipur and Nagaland meet, built on the region's two great preservation technologies, hearth smoking and bamboo fermentation, cooked together.

As tradition built it

Serves 4. About 45 minutes.

Ingredients

200 g fermented bamboo shoot, bastenga, or a Southeast Asian sour bamboo shoot if the genuine article is unobtainable, washed
400 g smoked pork, cut into bite sized pieces
1 large onion, sliced
1 thumb ginger, sliced
3 garlic cloves, lightly pounded
A handful a handful of ginger leaves, kneaded by hand, if available
Enough to cover water, to cover
To taste salt, to taste
to serve plain rice, to serve

Method

Wash the fermented bamboo shoot and cut the smoked pork into bite sized pieces.
Slice the onion and ginger, lightly pound the garlic, and knead the ginger leaves by hand if available.
Combine everything in a pot with enough water to cover, bring to a simmer and cook 20 minutes.
Salt to taste and simmer a further 15 minutes until the bamboo shoot has softened and taken on the smoke from the pork.
Serve with plain rice.

What a modern chef changes

Hearth smoke your own pork, and ferment your own bamboo shoot

Rungs 3 and 4

Method

First, smoke the pork yourself on a Big Green Egg rather than buying it ready smoked: strips of belly or shoulder, hung well above the heat deflector at well under 100°C, oak or fruitwood for a resinous note closer to a Naga hearth than hickory, for six to eight hours to a firm, semi dried result rather than a moist barbecue texture.
Second, reduce the pork's own smoking liquor, if using a water pan beneath it, separately to a concentrated glaze and finish the dish with it rather than relying on the simmer alone for smokiness.
Third, ferment your own bamboo shoot if time allows, following the bastenga method in the Ferment and Preserve Bench below, for a genuinely sour result rather than the milder Southeast Asian substitute.
Fourth, finish with a dusting of dehydrated, ground ginger leaf, intensifying an aromatic the tradition dish uses fresh and briefly.

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