Nagaland is a beautiful hilly and mountainous state in north east India and one of the ‘Seven Sisters’ states. The state capital is Kohima. Nagaland is known as a ‘Land of Festivals’.
There are about 16 tribes and each tribe celebrates their seasonal festivals with great colour. On top of it, the Government of Nagaland united all the 16 tribes under the banner of Hornbill Festival. During this festival each tribe displays their rich culture with traditional dances of great vibrancy. ‘Hornbill Festival’ is also known as the ‘Festival of Festivals’.
The hornbill is a sacred bird for Nagaland. There are many folk lores and songs where the hornbill has been mentioned. The bird symbolises peace, happiness and prosperity for the people of Nagaland.
The Hornbill festival is held in the month of December 1-10 in a village called Kisama, about 10 km away from Kohima.
Nagaland shares the international boundary with Myanmar (Burma) in the east.
The state is bounded by Assam in the west and north.
Arunachal Pradesh in the northeast
And Manipur in the south.
Food:
Staple food of Nagaland is rice served with variety of meat, fish, vegetable spiced with bamboo shoots, Naga chili. Although dal is not in their traditional cuisine, they do cook it in their own style.
Naga Dal- Dal in Naga style
This is an easy and nourishing dal dish. There is no spice and no oil. But a whole lot of fresh red chilies. Since we did not get the red chilli, we used both red dried chillies and green chillies. Mustard greens and bamboo shoots added more to the flavour. We enjoyed it. Hope you will try it out too.
You need:
100 gm whole moong dal
2 tbsp of bamboo shoot
2 green fresh chillies
2 red dried chillies
1-2 flakes of garlic
2-3 medium size of mustard green leaves
4 garlic chieves
Salt to taste
Method:
- Wash and soak the dal overnight.
- Next morning wash lightly and strain it.
3. Wash peel and slice the garlic finely.
4. Wash and slit the chillies.
5. Wash and chop the garlic chives. 6. Wash and tear the mustard green roughly with your hand as in the picture.
7. Place the dal in an open pan.
8. Add garlic and salt.
9. Add about 1 cup of hot water.
10. And cook over low heat until the dal is half cooked.
11. Add the bamboo shoots and the chillies and keep cooking for another 2 or 3 minutes until the green grams are cooked.
12. Add the garlic chives and then the mustard green and cook until the green gets cooked.
13. Serve it hot with steamed rice.
Happy Cooking !
Coming up next ……………… Dal from Sikkim.
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Dal On The Table 
Your blogs are a real delight to read…Recipe is simple yet so very unique…
Looking forward to many more such amazing recipes…
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This is very unique recipe… gonna try😀
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Thank you Protima.
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Loved reading!
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Thank you Anudhrita. Keep reading.
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learning so much from your blog. Thank you so much.
keep it coming
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Thank you Abha. I feel so good, when I know you are enjoying …..
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Nice simple and nutritious recipe.
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Thank you Preetishree. Keep reading ….
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A very different style of cooking dal than what we are used to!Khai sabo lagibo.😊
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Thank you Rini….
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