Pork Khappa

A traditional tribal dish from the Garo Hills of Meghalaya, India. Tribal food is known for use of minimum spices and ingredients and this one is no different. This dish contains indigenous soda or "Khar", made of burnt banana peels. The peels of some variety of local banana are completely burnt to ashes and mixed with water. The water is strained and the liquid is what is called Khar. This food is alkaline in nature and is eaten to balance the acids in the body. Traditional food has a lot of these secrets that are intrinsic to good health and vitality of the body. 

The pork like always is cooked in its own fat, with only ginger, red chilies, and one small onion. I added some Khar too. The beautiful color is chilies and khar. 

I had it prepared this on the weekend when a friend came visiting, and served it with some smoked tomato and coriander chutney and steamed rice.

Meat substitution suggestion: Chicken

Ingredients:

Pork 800 gms to 1kg ( Meat and fat ratio in 70:30)

Ginger- 2 tbsp crushed roughly

Dry Red Chili- 4-5, depending on taste

Onion- 1 chopped roughly

Indigenous Soda/ Khar: 2 tbsp ( substitute with 1 tsp sweet soda if you don't have Khar)

Salt, to taste

Garlic 2 pods

Method:

Clean, cut and wash the pork. Cube it to size you prefer. 

Rehydrate the chilli and make it to a paste.

Boil the pork in a pressure cooker, with the garlic and salt. I generally don't add water when I boil, the pork releases water, and the fat ensures that the pork doesn't stick to the cooker or burn.

Once the pork is boiled remove the pieces from the cooker and put in the fat pieces over medium heat. Let the fat melt slightly. Use the fat to cook.

Put the ginger and fry for a minute or two. Then add the onions and chilli. Fry for a minute or two and add the pork. Reserve the stock or liquid. When the pork starts sticking to the bottom use the reserved stock. And fry for sometime. When it is almost cooked add the khar/soda. Fry for sometime, add a little water if required. Check the salt.

Now eat.

Accompaniment suggestion: Try this with steamed rice. 

Meat Substitution: This recipe can easily be adapted to a chicken version. Use a little mustard oil, and proceed with cooking. Do not boil the chicken, just add the ginger and onion and proceed as per the recipe. Add some water to cook the chicken, and let the water evaporate to a consistency you prefer.