Where it comes from
Pork hung above the kitchen fire for weeks cures and smokes at once. Paired with fermented bamboo shoot (bastenga) and raja mircha, it is the defining dish of Naga kitchens — no oil, no masala, only fire and ferment.
Method
- 1
Soften the pork
40:00Boil the smoked pork in water with ginger and garlic until tender.
- 2
Add the ferment
15:00Stir in bamboo shoot and cook so its sourness runs through the fat.
- 3
The chilli
10:00Add the whole ghost chilli, pierced once. Simmer, tasting as you go.
- 4
Finish
03:00Season, scatter spring onion, and serve with sticky rice.
Cook's notes
- One ghost chilli feeds four people. Remove it once the heat is right.
- No oil is added at all — the pork renders its own.
