Mising are an ethnic community living in parts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Unlike other Assamese cuisines, Mising cuisine is also unique of its kind. Mising people are mainly non-vegetarian and rice is their main food. They eat different greens and herbs as vegetable together with fish, pork, chicken, duck meat etc. Namsing is a very popular dish among Mising people. Namsing is nothing but dry and grounded fish. Dry and grounded fish is equally popular among other ethnic groups of Assam also but they call it hukoti.
The method of preparation of namsing is little different from hukoti. In preparing namsing Mising people also add few herbs like colocasia leaves, long coriander etc. Small river fishes are used to make namsing. At first they clean the fishes and then dry them under sun or on smoke over stove top. After that they grounded the dry fishes together with different herbs in husking pedal (dheki). They use bamboo tubes and filled the tubes with the grounded mixture and tightly close it's mouth. Then they kept the tubes for fermentation for 2-3 weeks. After 2-3 weeks namsing becomes ready to use.
Namsing has a very pungent smell for which some people may not like it. Namsing is generally cooked in tora leaf (Alpinia nigra plant)or banana leaves and then can be eaten by making chutney by adding chopped onions and chillies. It can also be added to smoked mashed potatoes or brinjal. It can also be fried with brinjal and potatoes. Some people like to add it to fried rice.
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