Gahori Pura

Name: Gahori Pura
Total time: 100 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Assamese
Ingredients: 1 kg pork with skin and fat (belly or shoulder), cut in 2-inch pieces; 2 tbsp ginger paste; 2 tbsp garlic paste; 6 green chillies, crushed (or 1 bhut jolokia); ½ tsp turmeric powder; 3 tbsp mustard oil; 1½ tsp salt; 4 bamboo skewers, soaked in water; onion slices and lemon wedges, to serve

Fatty pork rubbed with ginger, garlic, chilli and mustard oil, then roasted slowly over wood embers till the edges char and the fat drips smoky.

Ingredients

1 kg pork with skin and fat (belly or shoulder), cut in 2-inch pieces
2 tbsp ginger paste
2 tbsp garlic paste
6 green chillies, crushed (or 1 bhut jolokia)
½ tsp turmeric powder
3 tbsp mustard oil
1½ tsp salt
4 bamboo skewers, soaked in water
onion slices and lemon wedges, to serve

Method

Wash the pork, scrape the skin clean and burn off any hair over a flame. Pat dry.
Mix ginger, garlic, crushed chillies, turmeric, salt and mustard oil, and rub it well into every piece.
Cover and marinate for at least 30 minutes, or overnight in the fridge for deeper flavour.
Light a wood or charcoal fire and let it burn down to glowing embers with no tall flames.
Thread the pork onto the bamboo skewers, keeping the pieces close but not packed.
Roast about 6 inches above the embers for 40 to 50 minutes, turning every 5 minutes so the fat renders and drips without burning.
Baste with any leftover marinade halfway. The pork is done when the skin is crisp and the inside shows no pink.
Slide off the skewers and serve hot with raw onion, lemon and a pitika.

Tip: Keep the pieces fatty — during Bihu uruka the dripping fat feeds the embers and gives gahori pura its deep smoky taste.