 Naga Smoked Pork with Axone | |
| Type | Fermented soyabeans |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | India Myanmar |
| Region or state | Nagaland Kachin state Sagaing Region |
| Associated cuisine | Naga cuisine, Kachin cuisine, Thai cuisine |
| Created by | Naga people |
| Main ingredients | Soyabean |
| Similar dishes | Thua nao, Kinema, Ngari, Tungrymbai, other fermented products |
Akhuni (also Axone) is a fermented soybean product commonly used in Naga cuisine of India and Myanmar.
The word Axone is from the Naga Sümi language, and is a combination of two words. Axo means "aroma" or "smell" and ne or nhe (similar word "tho") means "deep" or "strong". So it can be literally translated as "deep smell" or "strong smell".
It is prepared year-round from soybeans by people of all tribes, but most notably the Sümi Nagas of Nagaland. Soybeans grow at an altitude of 1,500 m and in rainy conditions, making them well suited for the Naga hills. They are also a protein-rich legume and traditionally protein-sparse diet.
Axone is prepared by rinsing picked soybeans in freshwater, and then boiling them until they are soft, but still whole. The excess water is drained and the soybeans are placed into a pot or degchi and left either out in the sun or next to the fire to let them ferment. This takes three to four days to ferment in summer and around one week in winter. [1]
As with the majority of fermented products in Nagaland, it is considered to be ready when it “smells right”. The soybeans are then placed in a wooden pestle and mashed with a mortar. They are not mashed completely but instead crushed as you would with garlic. A handful is then scooped up and placed in the center of a banana leaf, its edges closed to make a parcel. The package is sold or stored next to the fire and can be used immediately or kept for some weeks, darkening in color each day.
Akhuni fermentation results in proteolysis giving it a distinctive umami taste. Axone is then used in a huge variety of dishes. Two examples are fire-smoked pork and axone & nula (snails with axone).
A 2019 Indian Hindi/English film titled Axone , directed by Nicholas Kharkongor, deals with a day in life of a group of friends getting ready for a wedding and cooking Axone dish in a Delhi neighborhood which does not allow them to cook axone because of its strong smell. [2]
Piak of Arunachal Pradesh, Nepali kinema, tungrymbai of Meghalaya, hawaijaar of Manipur and bekang um of Mizoram.
Miso is a traditional Japanese seasoning. It is a thick paste produced by fermenting soybeans with salt and kōji, and sometimes rice, barley, seaweed, or other ingredients. It is used for sauces and spreads; pickling vegetables, fish, or meats; and mixing with dashi soup stock to serve as miso soup, a Japanese culinary staple food. Miso is high in protein and rich in vitamins and minerals, and it played an important nutritional role in feudal Japan. Miso is widely used in both traditional and modern cooking in Japan, and as of 2018 had been gaining worldwide interest.
Fish sauce is a liquid condiment made from fish or krill that have been coated in salt and fermented for up to two years. It is used as a staple seasoning in East Asian cuisine and Southeast Asian cuisine, particularly Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Some garum-related fish sauces have been used in the West since the Roman times.
Tempeh or tempe is a traditional Indonesian food made from fermented soybeans. It is made by a natural culturing and controlled fermentation process that binds soybeans into a cake form. A fungus, Rhizopus oligosporus or Rhizopus oryzae, is used in the fermentation process and is also known as tempeh starter.
Nattō is a traditional Japanese food made from whole soybeans that have been fermented with Bacillus subtilis var. natto. It is often served as a breakfast food with rice. It is served with karashi mustard, soy or tare sauce, and sometimes Japanese bunching onion. Within Japan, nattō is most popular in the eastern regions, including Kantō, Tōhoku, and Hokkaido.
Stinky tofu is a Chinese form of fermented tofu that has a strong odor. It is usually sold at night markets or roadside stands as a snack, or in lunch bars as a side dish, rather than in restaurants. Traditionally the dish is fermented in a brine with vegetables and meat, sometimes for months. Modern factory-produced stinky tofu is marinated in brine for one or two days to add odor. Generally speaking, stinky tofu is mainly made of tofu. After fermentation of edible mold, tofu can produce a large number of B vitamins, a variety of minerals and trace elements. The flavor of stinky tofu is bitter.
Douchi is a type of fermented and salted black soybean most popular in the cuisine of China, where they are most widely used for making black bean sauce dishes.
Parkia speciosa, the bitter bean, twisted cluster bean, sator bean, stink bean, or petai is a plant of the genus Parkia in the family Fabaceae. It bears long, flat edible beans with bright green seeds the size and shape of plump almonds which have a rather peculiar smell, similar to, but stronger than that of the shiitake mushroom, due to sulfur-containing compounds also found in shiitake, truffles and cabbage.
Doenjang or soybean paste is a type of fermented bean paste made entirely of soybean and brine used in Korean cuisine. It is also a byproduct of soup and soy sauce production. It is sometimes used as a relish.
Fermented tofu is a Chinese condiment consisting of a form of processed, preserved tofu used in East Asian cuisine. The ingredients typically are soybeans, salt, rice wine and sesame oil or vinegar. In mainland China the product is often freshly distributed. In overseas Chinese communities living in Southeast Asia, commercially packaged versions are often sold in jars containing blocks 2- to 4-cm square by 1 to 2 cm thick soaked in brine with select flavorings.
Chili sauce and chili paste are condiments prepared with chili peppers.
Rød pølse is a type of brightly red, boiled pork sausage very common in Denmark. Since hot dog stands are ubiquitous in Denmark, some people regard røde pølser as one of the national dishes. They are made of the Vienna type and the skin is colored with a traditional red dye (carmine).
Naga cuisine is the traditional foods of the Naga people in the northeastern region of India and Kachin, Sagaing Region of Myanmar. Each ethnic group of the Nagas prepares its own unique style of cuisines. It most notably features rice, meats and leaf vegetables. Meat prepared by the Nagas are often smoked, dried or fermented. Naga dishes are quite similar to dishes of Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar and Thailand.
The Sümis are a major Naga ethnic group native to the northeast Indian state of Nagaland. Anthropological study of the Sümis is documented in the book The Sema Nagas by J. H. Hutton, who was a Professor of Social Anthropology in the University of Cambridge. The Sümi people are recognised as a Scheduled Tribe (ST's) by India.
Tofu is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness: silken, soft, firm, extra firm. Tofu is translated as bean curd in English. Tofu originated in China and has been consumed in the country for over 2,000 years. Tofu is a traditional component of many East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisines; in modern Western cooking, it is often used as a meat substitute.
Kinema is a fermented soybean food, prepared by the Kirati communities of the Eastern Himalayas region: Eastern Nepal, and Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Sikkim regions of India. Kinema also known as Kinama, which is a traditional food of the Kirati people.
Dolly Kikon is an Indian anthropologist and author from Nagaland. She is a Professor at the Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz. She was previously Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Melbourne and a senior research advisor at the Australia India Institute, engaging in research and policy initiatives between India and Australia. She serves on the Council of Advisors for The India Forum.
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