Naga Smoked Pork with Anishi Recipe

What exactly IS Anishi?

Before we go to the Naga Smoked Pork with Anishi recipe, let’s discuss this ingredient. What exactly IS Anishi or Nuoshi (another name for Anishi)? Well, after doing a significant amount of research and questioning some dear friends till the point where they begged me to stop, I got some answers.

The recipe I am using today is roughly adapted from an Ao Naga recipe I got by watching a friend, and also from a recipe by Becky Makes Stuffs here. My version lies somewhere between the two, and I have to say, I feel that upping the ginger quotient works for me, because I LOVE ginger.

For the uninitiated, Anishi or Nuoshi is a flavouring agent for the Ao Naga tribe, and its essentially pounded and smoked and fermented colocasia leaves, that look like hard, flat discs. It is sort of difficult to cook with it, and it does have a rather unique flavour, the closest and easiest for me to recognize, I would have to say, is the flavour of weak, black tea, without the tannin, but definitely with extra leafiness.

Did that make sense? Well, if you have stuck to the story so far, follow me to get to the second part. But before that, lets watch this informative video.

Check out this video of making Anishi from Scratch on YouTube:

The Smoked Pork

I have already jotted down some fresh and smoked pork recipes on the blog, and I generally sourced a version of Naga smoked pork from Prithvish C of Calcutta Stories Cafe and Deli, who has now started to stock Akhuni (Axone), Anishi, Bhoot Jolokia in Oil and the Naga smoked pork he smokes there is pretty good. I love fatty slices of Naga Pork, and the recipe of Smoked Pork with Anishi has no oil, and it DOES take a little bit of effort, but the result is really interesting.

Warning: Anishi IS a bit of an acquired taste, so proceed carefully.

Smoked Pork with Anishi Recipe

Start by chopping into thick slices about 250-300 gm. smoked pork. I tend to slice the meat when its still semi-hard to get cleaner cuts. After cutting the pieces, I tend to also go through them with a pair of tweezers to pull out any stubborn boar bristle I find, because finding them in your food isn’t my favourite thing. I do have a pair of tiny tweezers for literally this one job, so well, I use it wisely. Once picked and clean, just put the pieces in a pan, add enough water to cover, let the water come to a boil, and then remove the pieces from the water and throw the water out. This will get rid of any dirt or charred bits still clinging to the pork pieces.

Then, heat a pressure cooker and add the pork pieces in it. Take one Anishi disc (each disc is around 30-40 gm. in weight) and cut in half or quarters. Add 2 cored medium tomatoes, about 200 gm., 200 gm. small potatoes, peeled but left whole (about 4-5 potatoes) 1 tablespoon crushed ginger, garlic and chilli, and enough water to cover everything. Stir a couple of times, let the mixture come to a boil, then pressure cook till done, about 2 whistles. Let the cooker cool down naturally.

Now, separately, roast 1/2 teaspoon Sichuan Peppercorn or Timur, or plain black peppercorn over medium-low heat for a couple of minutes. Naga pots tend to have this heavy lid with a little cup where you can roast small quantities of spices. Since I didn’t, I used my trusty frying pan. After a minute or so of roasting, remove, and roughly crush it with a 1-inch knob of ginger. Set this aside.

Once the pressure cooker cools down on its own, take out the Anishi and the Tomatoes and make a fine paste with some water or some of the gravy in the cooker. Return to the pot, and then add some salt. Stir well, cook for 10 minutes.

Just before removing, add the pepper-ginger mixture, stir it in thoroughly, then remove the pot from the heat. Serve with some rice, daal, and stir fried vegetables.