Tender boiled pork mixed with a paste of roasted chilli, garlic and ginger — a Tripuri preparation where the chilli paste serves as both condiment and sauce. Wahan means pork and mosdeng means chilli in Kokborok.
Ingredients
400 g pork — boiled until tender with salt, ginger and garlic
For the mosdeng chilli paste:
6 dried red chilli — dry roasted
4 fresh green chilli — roasted on flame
6 garlic cloves — roasted on flame until soft
1 inch ginger — raw
a pinch of salt
a few drops of mustard oil
Method
Boil the pork: Place pork in a pot with water to cover, a pinch of salt, 2 sliced garlic cloves and a piece of ginger. Boil for 25 to 30 minutes until completely tender. Drain and cool slightly. Cut into thin slices or shred.
Make the mosdeng paste: Dry roast dried red chilli in a pan for 2 minutes. Roast fresh green chilli and whole garlic cloves over a gas flame until charred on the outside. Cool.
Pound the chilli and garlic: In a mortar pound the roasted dried red chilli first, then add the roasted green chilli and garlic. Pound together into a rough, textured paste.
Add raw ginger: Add the raw ginger (grated or pounded). Mix into the chilli paste.
Season: Add salt. Add a few drops of mustard oil. Stir.
Combine pork with paste: Mix the sliced boiled pork with the mosdeng chilli paste. Toss so every piece is coated with the paste.
Taste and adjust: The combination should be savoury from the pork, fiery from the chilli, pungent from the garlic and mustard oil.
Serve at room temperature: Wahan mosdeng is served at room temperature — the pork should be warm from the boiling but the paste is cold.
Plate: Arrange on a plate with the chilli paste coating visible on each pork slice.
Serve alongside rice: Serve with steamed rice and berma chutney.
Note: Wahan Mosdeng is one of the best-known Tripuri preparations — a simple combination of boiled pork and roasted chilli paste that exemplifies the Kokborok cooking philosophy of using the freshest, most direct ingredients without masking flavours. The roasting of both dried and fresh chilli before making the paste gives it a complex, slightly smoky depth. Considered an everyday preparation in Tripuri homes.