Phaksha is pork and paa is simply a cooked dish, which tells you how central this one is: it needs no further description to a Bhutanese cook. Pork is prized here for its fat rather than in spite of it, and the cut is belly or shoulder sliced into thick strips with the fat left on, because fat is fuel at altitude and the dish belongs to the cold months. Radish is the counterweight, going sweet and translucent as it takes on the pork fat, and whole dried red chillies bring heat without turning the pan to paste. There is a second version made with sikam, pork air-dried through the winter on a farmhouse rafter, which needs a long soak before it will cook and rewards it with a deeper, cured flavour that fresh pork cannot reach.
Zone: Tibetan Sphere
INGREDIENTS
- 700 g pork belly (skin removed, cut into strips 1cm thick)
- 1 large daikon radish (about 400g, peeled and cut into thick half-moons)
- 8 whole dried red chillies
- 1 medium onion (sliced)
- 5 garlic cloves (sliced)
- 3 cm ginger (sliced into matchsticks)
- ½ tsp Sichuan peppercorns (lightly crushed)
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp salt
- 400 ml water
- 2 spring onions (cut into lengths)
- a handful of spinach leaves
METHOD
- Put the pork strips in a heavy pan with the water, ginger, garlic and salt. Bring to a boil, skim off the froth, then lower the heat and simmer covered for 25 minutes.
- Add the onion, dried chillies, Sichuan peppercorns and turmeric. Stir once and simmer for another 10 minutes.
- Add the radish and cook for 15 minutes, until the pieces have turned from opaque white to faintly translucent and take a knife easily.
- Uncover and raise the heat for the last 5 to 10 minutes, until the liquid has reduced to a glossy sauce that clings to the pork and the fat has come up clear at the edges.
- Stir the spinach and spring onions through, cook for a further minute until the leaves wilt, and serve with red rice.
NOTES
UK adaptation: Pork belly from any butcher or supermarket, skin off, sliced into finger-thick strips. Mooli, sold as daikon or white radish at South Asian and East Asian grocers, is the correct radish; ordinary red radishes are not a substitute. Whole dried Kashmiri chillies give colour without punishing heat. Sichuan peppercorns, sold at Chinese grocers, stand in for Bhutanese thingay. Everything else widely available.
US adaptation: Pork belly from any supermarket or butcher. Daikon radish from H Mart, an Asian grocery, or a well-stocked supermarket. Whole dried guajillo or Kashmiri chillies for colour, with a couple of chiles de arbol for heat. Sichuan peppercorns from an Asian grocery or online. Everything else widely available.
Cook’s note: Do not trim the fat off the pork, because it is the cooking medium and the whole point of the dish. Simmer uncovered for the last ten minutes so the liquid reduces around the meat rather than leaving it swimming.