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Vegetables from Nagaland, Northeast India

Njetim and jegietsang dui (Naga fermented mustard-leaf paste)njetim

Njetim and jegietsang dui are black pastes made from fermented mustard leaves by Naga peoples. In the Zeliang method, mustard leaves wither and yellow on a mat in the shade, are pounded and left in jars for about ten days; the juice is then wrung out and boiled down to a thick black paste. The pressed leaves are dried and eaten too.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Njetim and jegietsang dui itself.

DocumentedVegetables13 days – 15 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceOne Zeliang batch as described by a KVK Peren scientist (Morung Express 2020). The source read for the Zeme njetim gives no amounts.
Mustard leavesabout 15 kgGives about 5 litres of juice and about half a litre of paste[morung2020]

Total time across the recorded steps: 13 days – 15 days

Start
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What changes: Mustard leaves wither and turn yellow on a mat in the shade over 3–5 days

Step 1 of 5
Let the leaves wither and yellow on a mat in the shade
Time
3–5 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
green to yellow

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Njetim and jegietsang dui are black pastes made from fermented mustard leaves by Naga peoples. In the Zeliang method, mustard leaves wither and yellow on a mat in the shade, are pounded and left in jars for about ten days; the juice is then wrung out and boiled down to a thick black paste. The pressed leaves are dried and eaten too. Made in 5 steps over 13 days – 15 days. The longest step, pound the leaves and ferment them in jars or pots, takes 10 days (Zeliang P.K. (KVK Peren) 2020).

Key numbers
Main step10 daysReported[morung2020]Pound the leaves and ferment them in jars or pots

What makes this one different

The fermented juice is boiled down to a black concentrate, and the pressed leaves are dried as a second product [morung2020].

Related ferments

Variants

  • Njetim (Zeme)The Zeme mustard-leaf paste, used as a taste-maker [atungbou2020].
  • Jegietsang dui (Zeliang)Leaves pressed in jars about 10 days; juice strained three times and cooked about 3 hours; dried leaves sold as jegietsang [morung2020].

Safety

The juice is boiled for about 3 hours into a thick paste, which the Zeliang source says keeps edible for more than a year in a tightly capped bamboo mug.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

  1. [atungbou2020] Atungbou N. 2020, Food practice for physical and spiritual well-being of the Zeme, the tribe in Northeast India, Journal of Ethnic Foods 7:41, doi:10.1186/s42779-020-00074-0 (abstract, read through DOAJ)paper
  2. [morung2020] Zeliang P.K. (KVK Peren) 2020, Jegietsang dui, a unique traditional food of the Zeliang Nagas, The Morung Express, 2 January 2020web