Pork with Mustard leaves | Wak Pura

Mustard field in North East India

I enter nostalgia whenever I eat this dish reminding of early winter days when mustard blooms and a wanting grows for a hearty meal. A field full of mustard flowers and running in slow motion around with my siblings and cousins assuming us to be on television, when our winter vacations starts in Meghalaya.

Rice being a major staple and eating them various other forms is always applicable to all traditional dishes in North East India. However, the rice flour batter dish is always distinct because we cook it with different vegetables, meat and fish depending on the season. We do versions in bamboo shoots, Cockles, pork, dry fish, taro leaves, etc.

Lai Haax Gohori

INGREDIENTS:

1.     Pork – 750gm

2.     Mustard leaves 400 gm

3.     Rice flour batter - 5 Tbsp in 1 cup water

4.     Khar -30ml or soda bicarbonate – 1tsp

5.     2 large onions

6.     Chilies as per taste

7.     Salt as per taste

TIP: Do not use the stems of the mustard leaves. Do not chop them too, use your hands by tearing, twisting and massaging the leaves.

PREPARATION

1.     Add the pork cubes to the pot with salt and ½ of the Khar/soda bicarbonate and mix them well. Cover and cook on low flame for 15mins.

2.     Once the water from the meat is dried and the fat in the meat starts melting, add the onions and green chilies. Fry them until the meat turn light brown and the onions melted.

3.     Add the mustard leaves and add the remaining Khar/soda bicarbonate and fry them on a high flame for 2-3mins until the leaves shrink.

4.     Add about 1 liter of water and cover and cover it with the lid for 10mins. If required, add more water so that the meat is cooked.

5.     Now add the rice flour batter and keep stirring the gravy so that there are no lumps and thicken the gravy to a consistency of your choice.

Serve with steam rice and the dish tastes better at room temperature.

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