Spicy-Crispy Meat Pickle

Meat pickle in an old horlicks bottle is a parcel, i'm sure, most school or college students from the north-east staying in a hostel are familiar with.  What a moment of ecstatic happiness it use to be to receive parcels from home when you're "rotting away" eating hostel food.  Meat pickles made in the taste and flavors of home -- yum!!  We would have this spicy treat with tea straight off the bottle, as a side with dal&rice, and even with waiwai ( if you don't know what this is -- i'm sorry, you haven't been living well 😄) adding more pickled raja mircha -- wonderful food memories! 

For this post, i tweaked the recipe slightly.  I must warn you right now that this is a time consuming recipe.  It takes a good two to three hours to get this done.  The pain is not so much in prepping the ingredients, but it's more about the waiting and mixing for the meat to crisp up.  Also, i would suggest that you make this in a big batch, that way you get to enjoy the produce of your labor a little longer😉.

For this recipe, i've used wild boar meat, but you can substitute using regular pork meat.   The magic ingredient that makes this unique is the use of dried Machiang or Winged Prickly Ash seeds.  And you absolutely must use Mustard Oil, as well.  Please find the detailed recipe below: 

Ingredients:

2 Kilo - Meat

3/4 Cup - Mustard Oil

1 Cup - Onion, Sliced thin

1/2 Cup - Ginger, diced, bite pieces

1/2 Cup - Garlic, Sliced thin

1/2 Cup - Dried, Machiang seeds/ WingedPrickly Ash.

4 - Dried, Raja/King Chilies

6 - Dried, Red Chilies

2 Tbsp - Soy Sauce

4 Tbsp - White vinegar

2 Tsp - Sugar

Salt - Per taste

Method:

Pressure cook the meat till tender, about 3 -4 whistle, cool it and then chop it up to small pieces. Keep aside

Dry roast the machiang seeds, crush it to rough powder and keep aside.

Take a deep bottomed pan and bring the oil to boil. First, chuck in the onion slices and fry till slightly brown. Add ginger and garlic one after the other and fry till aromatic. Then, add half of the powdered Machiang seeds and give it a good mixing.

Now, add the diced precooked meat, salt, and stir the meat ensuring that everything is well mixed. Reduce the flame to medium and keep cooking for a while. 

Add the vinegar, give it a good stirring, cook for a couple more minutes; then, add the soy sauce. Again, give it a good mixing and keep cooking, open. 

Halfway through the cooking, once the meat is slowly coming together, add the remainder of the powdered Machaing seeds, give it a good stirring, reduce flame to simmer, and cook till the meat gets crispy to your liking.

Once done, let it cool complete and then transfer it to a jar; or, have at it straight away!