Northeast Indian

Pork Rira (Naga Dry Pork in Its Own Fat)

Name: Pork Rira (Naga Dry Pork in Its Own Fat)
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Northeast Indian
Ingredients: 1.5 lb pork belly; 1 tbsp ginger, sliced; 6 garlic cloves; 4 dried red chili; 1 bhut jolokia; 1/4 cup water; 1 tsp salt

Asenla @asenla_kohima

Pork Rira (Naga Dry Pork in Its Own Fat) is Northeast Indian home cooking, eaten at lunch and dinner. On the plate it is the dish at the centre. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.

60 min Medium Gluten free Dairy free

Ingredients

Serves

The quantities follow this count.

1.5 lb pork belly
1 tbsp ginger, sliced
6 garlic cloves
4 dried red chili
1 bhut jolokia
1/4 cup water
1 tsp salt

How to cook it

Cut the pork belly into small cubes, keeping the fat on; the fat is the point of this dish, not something to trim away.
Put the pork in a dry, heavy pot with the ginger, garlic, dried red chilies and the water, and set it over medium-low heat.
Cover and cook 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the pork releases its own fat and the water has cooked away.
Add the bhut jolokia whole, wearing gloves to handle it since it is one of the hottest chilies grown anywhere; do not split it open unless the household truly wants that heat.
Uncover and cook 20 minutes more over medium heat, stirring often, until the pork pieces are deeply browned and frying in their own rendered fat, with almost no liquid left in the pot.
Season with salt in the final few minutes, since salting too early draws out moisture and slows the browning.
Serve hot with a bowl of plain rice; a little of the pork fat spooned over the rice is the traditional finish.

Serve it with

A Northeast Indian dinner is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Pork Rira (Naga Dry Pork in Its Own Fat), read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.

The cooked vegetable
- Akhuni Yam (Fermented Soybean with Yam and Mustard Greens)
  
  25 min
The protein alongside
- Lauki Chana Dal (Bottle Gourd and Lentils)
  
  45 min
What it is eaten with
- Galho (One Pot Rice, Greens and Chicken Porridge)
  
  40 min

A course labelled with another kitchen's name comes from a cuisine in the same family, which is where this plate usually borrows it from.

Safe at your table

Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand. Pork Rira (Naga Dry Pork in Its Own Fat) carries none of them. That is a checked answer rather than an ingredient list nobody read.

Every tracked allergen in Pork Rira (Naga Dry Pork in Its Own Fat)
Allergen	In this dish
Peanuts	No
Tree nuts	No
Dairy	No
Gluten	No
Shellfish	No
Eggs	No
Soy	No
Fish	No
Sesame	No
Coconut	No

These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.

What it brings to the plate

Estimated, per serving

Calories: 400 kcal
Protein: 24 g
Carbs: 4 g
Fat: 32 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sugar: 1 g
Sodium: 480 mg
Saturated fat: 11 g

Estimated values. Actual nutrition varies with ingredients, brands, and how you cook.

When to cook it

Pork Rira (Naga Dry Pork in Its Own Fat) takes about 60 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a fair bit of work. It is eaten at lunch and dinner. Nothing in the calendar rules it out, so it is a year round dish.