Phagsha Paa, (Pork Belly with Radish), (Schweinebauch mit Rettich)

"Paa" refers to meat dish cooked with vegetables and chillies (both fresh and dried).  It is more a stew served with little gravy. The meat is always cut bigger or longer in size and it is cooked mostly with vegetables like radish, spinach, cabbage, potatoes, fiddlehead ferns, dried Aubergine, and dried turnip leaves or just with lots of chillies.

The varieties of meat commonly used for "Paa" are beef (Nor-sha), pork (Phag-sha), dried yak meat ( Yaksha kam), dried beef (Sha-kam) and dried pork (Si-kam).

Today, I tried cooking Phagsha Paa using smoked & cured Pork belly. And Guess what? it worked :). My operation tango was successful !!!!!!!

What i used/ was ich verwendet habe:

150 gr. Pork belly           150 gr. Schweinebauch

1 medium tomato            1 mittelgroße Tomate

200 gr. white radish      200 gr. Weiser Rettich

8 dried red chillies        8 getrocknete rote chillies

150 ml water                  150 ml Wasser

1 Tbsp. Oil                      1 EL Öl

salt                                  Salz

*Makes 1 Serving (double or triple the amount for more servings).

Preparation.

1. Chunk the Pork into quarters,wash and slice the tomato.Transfer the pork with the sliced tomato, oil and water in a Pot. Cover and cook on a medium heat for 20 minutes. Stir and cook further without covering for 10-15 minutes.

2. In the meantime, peel, wash and cut the radish into round slices (approx. 3 mm thick). Wash and half the chillies lengthwise.

3. Add radish and salt (careful with salt, since the pork is already salted). Cook for 5 minutes (with the lid on) and continue cooking (without the lid) over low heat for 10-12 minutes. Stir gently.

4. Once the radish is cooked, add chillies, cover and cook for 3 minutes. Reduce the flame to minimum, stir gently and simmer without covering for 1-2 minutes. 

5.  Adjust the seasoning (salt) again and serve with rice. 

Tip: The idea here is to cook without covering until the broth is reduced to gravy when you are done cooking. If you have accidentally used more water, cook without covering (before adding the vegetables) until the liquid/broth is decreased to the required amount. And if there is less liquid,then add a little water as required.

****************************************************************

Phagsha Paa cooked with only tomatoes and fresh chillies.

****************************************************************