Last Updated on December 14, 2020 by Chef Mireille
We are nearing the end of our Indian Odyssey and I have learned so much during the last 30 days about this complex and diverse country, but it was also a lot of work and a lot of research so I have to say I’m exhausted and glad it’s almost over. Most exhausting of all was the research to discover recipes from the far reaches of Northeast India, known as the seven sisters. Tripura is the last of these seven sisters and then its smooth sailing to the finish line now.
Tripura has a majority Bengali population with a 30% tribal population. The Kokborok speaking tribe is the majority tribe out of 19 tribes and sub tribes. When Tripura was integrated into independent India from its former princely state status in 1949, tensions between the Bengali population and the native tribal population began and plagued the state for decades. With the establishment of an independent tribal administrative agency, Tripura has remained peaceful since 2012.
It is one of India’s most under developed and impoverished states with very high unemployment. With only one highway connecting it to the rest of India, it is largely cut off from infrastructure. It is a single lane highway and often plagued by floods and landslides. This cuts off Tripura from the rest of the nation. Most of the population is involved in farming and related work. However, since much of the state is forest and hills, only 27% of the land is able to be cultivated for crops. Rice is the major crop – more than 90% of the available land is used for rice production. Other crops include potato, pulses (lentils/beans), jackfruit, pineapple, sugarcane and hibiscus.
Like Nagaland, most of the tribals are Christian Baptists and don’t have any meat eating dietary restrictions. Fish, beef and especially pork, are eaten in abundance here.
Tripura gave me one of the biggest headaches in finding authentic recipes to represent this state of India. Finally, I found this recipe, which is one of the most popular street food items in Agartala, the capital of Tripura.
I did not have hopes for this recipe in that I can’t fathom how boiled meat can be appetizing. With my family from the Caribbean, we always brown meat to give food that smoky, roasted flavor. I did adjust the recipe slightly in that I cooked the onions with the pork, instead of adding them at the end. This is only my personal preference because I don’t like raw onions. However, traditionally, the onions would be added at the end and simply mixed in to the pork, without cooking.
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 lbs. pork stew meat
- 2 onions, thinly sliced
- 4″ piece of ginger, grated
- 8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 6 chiles
- salt, to taste
In a large pot, bring 3 1/2 cups of water to a boil. Add pork and salt. Cook for 5 minutes until you see scum rise to the surface. Remove the scum.
Add garlic and onions. Simmer for 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, remove the top end of the chiles and roast over open flame until they are charred on the outside. Mash chiles.
Add ginger and chiles to pork. Stir to combine and adjust salt, as needed.
Although edible, it needs some spices added to it. The roasted chiles is not enough. It needs some smoky spices like cumin, coriander or paprika.
If I gave this to my family to eat, they would look at me like I’d lost my mind. Our meat is always brown. Whether it is fried, roasted or steamed. It is brown with the use of spices plus the cooking process. They would think I hadn’t fully cooked the meat and was giving them half raw food to eat.
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| Agartala – answers.com |
I try to image myself walking down the streets of Agartala sightseeing and then filled with hunger seeing bowls of Bharta being sold by a street side vendor. The line would be long since it is one of the most popular street foods in Agartala.
I have to say a bowl of white meat that looks like it needs to be cooked more is the last place I would go to. Instead, I would look for someone selling momos or some Bengali food.
After spicing it up a bit, I did enjoy it with some Tamarind Rice.
This reminded me of a friend of my former roomate, who basically had no cooking skills whatsoever. He would always stop by for a visit around dinnertime because the only thing he knew how to make was boiled food. He had the same thing for dinner every night – one boiled chicken breast with boiled broccoli and salad. He was very health conscious and spent half his life at the gym, but I think he was eating this more out of lack of cooking skills than he thought it was a good dinner to keep in shape. No matter what we offerred him, no matter how fattening or calorie laden it was, he never refused. Back then, just the thought of boiled meat used to have me rolling my eyes and now I can confirm I was right. It is the worst cooking method for meat.
I haven’t seen Adrian in about 15 years. I wonder if he is still eating boiled meat???
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Chef Mireille
We dont eat pork, may be i'll try a day with chicken, simple bharta..
I can completely understand your point of view , even we prefer the meat to be fully cooked and covered under the thick layer of its own crust or loads of masaledar gravy. I had similar experience once while travelling on scandinavian airlines, where out of no choice i had to opt for shrimp burger, they literally gave me boiled shrimps and bread and I could not even look at it let alone eating ..but then i also appreciate your effort to emulate and try this out …great work
Tripura was so hard for me also… but your idea of WB population in majority there helped me a lot.. Thanks Mir!!
Good that you were able to find something for this state that you could cook..this was a tough state for me as well..
Kudos to you for trying a cooking method that you knew you wouldn't like. There were a couple of dishes that I made that I wasn't really thrilled to try, but thankfully they all tasted pretty good at the end.
Hi There, I would like to Appreciate you blog about my Homeland Tripura though i Live in Bangalore now. I would like to point out a Few things. Tripura is Definitely not among the Underdeveloped States in India, Rather it is one of the most highly Developing States in the country with the highest literacy rate surpassing Kerela. I agree that the communication by road is not up to the mark but that has not refrained the state from Prospering. It was Daily fights that connects it to the rest of India, It has a International Bus Service to via Bangladesh to Kolkata. The roads are much more smoother than any other state in the Country barring the Top Tier cities and States, The Sub Divisions are well managed and is ahead of states like Bihar, Assam etc. The BPL mass is provided with daily wage work by the government which gives Employment to the unskilled mass. It has its own Power Production which lends power to other North Eastern States. The People are in fact more civilized than any other place in the country.
So i would request you not to put up a wrong picture about the state to the rest of the country, you being a popular blogger. As already it is mistaken by many people.
And about the recipe you shared the actual Pork Bharta of Tripura is not made in a Watery base rather its dry as the water is drained from the boiled pork and then the spices are mixed after that. I dont know your source but that is not the actual procedure to cook the dish. Hope you will take it Positively.
This is one state I wasn't happy with the dish I cooked. I wanted to do a meat dish but since I was the only one going to eat it, I picked a vegetarian dish, and even that was boiled, just like your pork dish. I think we should have customized it to our own taste to make it edible. But still appreciate your efforts to stick as close to the original recipe as possible.
Nice efforts Mirelle…
Oh yea, Tripura was one of the toughest!Glad that you could find something for this state. And it wasnice reading your post about your friend,Mir…
appreciate your candid review Mir.. but great that you gave it a shot
Mir you are awesome. This is something that you need to get used to.Kudos to you.
good to know you found something you cooked 🙂
Well…..chef…i just got to say that…its correct name is not suar bortha.this dish is not bengali origin.its tribal origin…and locally known as wahan mosodeng.just in the streets the sellers are majority bengali owned shops so they refer to as suar bharta .As tribals too do go eat there in street stalls but majority dnt eat in street stalls as they prepare it at their own homes.And wahan mosodeng is just not served alone.Its served with traditional sticky rice which is stuffed in cone shaped leaf(known as lairu) tied and boiled or it is served with steam cooked sticky rice
Wish to share it’s called Wahan/Pork Mosdeng/Bharta or Bhorta. Appreciate your effort in sharing the recipe!
Suwar Bhorta is a Bengali name for this now famed indigenous Pork delicacy of my home state, Tripura.
There definitely is a plethora of indigenous fish, poultry and vegetarian delicacies as well. Unfortunately! Hardly few are up on some of the blogs and websites. Rest are typical Bengali delicacies which should not be considered as indigenous “Borok” delicacies.
Tripura is the most peaceful state in the region, except for minor incidents in the Mofussil areas, the city area is peaceful.
Regards,
Pushpita Aheibam.