Chamthong

Nothing is fried at any point: the vegetables are boiled with herbs and the fermented fish.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

• 800 g mixed seasonal vegetables -- bottle gourd, potato, beans, peas, pumpkin, carrot
• 200 g leafy greens -- spinach, amaranth or colocasia leaves
• 1 tablespoon Ngari, as on its own page
• 2 onions, sliced, or 60 g maroi chives
• a 3 cm piece of ginger, sliced
• 2 green chillies, slit
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon mustard oil
• 800 ml water

Method

1. NOTHING IS FRIED AT ANY POINT: THE VEGETABLES ARE BOILED WITH HERBS AND THE FERMENTED FISH. Its article calls it a LIGHT vegetable stew made by BOILING different vegetables with herbs and spices, and praises it for the simplicity of the method. That absence of a frying step is the whole character. Almost every other curry in the country starts with something in hot oil; this one is a pot of water, vegetables, aromatics and a lump of ngari brought to a boil. The result tastes clean and of the vegetables themselves, which is the point of it.
2. THE OIL, IF ANY, GOES IN AT THE END AND RAW. A spoonful of mustard oil stirred through off the heat. That is a dressing, not a frying medium.
3. THE VEGETABLES ARE WHATEVER IS IN SEASON, AND ITS ARTICLE LISTS THEM. Bottle gourd, potatoes, beans, peas, pumpkin, carrot, spinach, amaranth greens, colocasia leaves and jackfruit seeds, with others depending on availability. It is a dish defined by its method rather than its contents.
4. THEY GO IN BY COOKING TIME, HARDEST FIRST. Potato and gourd first, then beans and carrot, then peas, then the leaves for the last three minutes. Everything in at once gives collapsed greens and raw potato.
5. THE NGARI GOES IN AT THE START, WHOLE. A lump dropped into the water, which breaks down over the cooking and seasons the whole pot. It is the salt and the savour together.
6. IT IS A THIN STEW AND IT IS MEANT TO BE. Eight hundred millilitres of water for a kilo of vegetables. Reduced to a thick curry it stops being kangshoi.
7. GINGER AND CHILLI ARE SLICED AND LEFT IN. Not ground to a paste. You want to find them.
8. IT IS A WEEKDAY POT AND IT IS EATEN WITH RICE. Its article notes the dish was included in a 2024 showcase of north-eastern cooking, and that it is valued for how simple it is -- which is the right note to end on.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

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