Ngari: an indigenous fermented fish product from Manipur
- Part 1 -

Soibam Khogen Singh, Chabungbam Aken Singh, Yumlembam Jackie Singh and Pronob Das *

Introduction

Traditional processing of fish such as fermentation, salting, drying and smoking are the principal methods of fish preservation in Southeast Asia (Cooke et al., 1993). In Northeast India, fermentation is one of the oldest and most economical methods for producing and preserving food. In addition to preservation, fermented foods can also have the added benefits of enhancing flavour, increasing digestibility, improving nutrition value and pharmacological values.

Each fermented product is associated with unique group of micro flora which increases the level of protein, vitamins, essential amino acid and fatty acids (Jeyaram et al., 2009). Indigenous fermented foods contribute a large portion of daily food intake in North-eastern states of India.

In Manipur, traditional foods and beverages like Hawaijar, Soibum, Soidon, Ngari, Hentak, Ziang sang, Atingba and other fermented beverages has been consumed as a regular food in different recipe over a long period of time (Jeyaram et al., 2009). Among these, Ngari a fermented fish product have been most widely used by the peoples of Manipur.

Ngari is gifted to the people of the Manipur since decades for its enormous values. It is one of the essential ingredients of every household in the area accounting to its taste, therapeutic properties and strong appetizing nature. Due to its ever-growing popularities, its value as a food ingredient has grown into other states of the North-eastern region.

Ngari is a fermented fish product locally prepared from some fish species mainly the Puntius species. Ngari is a major ingredient in iromba preparation, a pungent vegetable and bamboo-shoot strew. "Seedal" is another fermented fish product very popular in state of Tripura (Armaan et al., 2003). It is also prepared from Puntius species but the only difference between these products is in the size of the fishes used in its preparation.

In Ngari preparation the fishes used are of comparatively small sizes ranging from 5-10 cms. In texture Ngari is comparatively softer than Seedal which has a comparatively hard solid texture. Tungtap is another fermented fish paste, commonly consumed by the Khasi tribes of Meghalaya in Northeast state of India (Thapa, 2002).

The medicinal and microbial properties of the fermented products was studied and documented by many workers (Sarojnalini and Singh, 1988). The high degree of hydrophobicity by some lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains isolated from ngari, hentak and tungtap indicates the potential of adhesion to gut epithelial cells of human intestine, advocating their 'probiotic' character (Thapa et al., 2004). Lactic acid bacteria are normal residents of the complex ecosystem of the gastrointestinal tract (Holzapfel et al. 1998).

Essential items in Ngari preparation

The preparation procedure of Ngari starts with the collection of locally available Puntius fish or which are imported from fish markets of adjoining states of Assam or from far states like Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. The local fisherman catches these fishes from the wetlands or pats and also as by-catch from local ponds.

But in commercial production of Ngari by bulk or major entrepreneurs, the fishes are collected from other states in dried form. The processing Industry is absent in Manipur, the processing of this product and then marketing is confined to some of the rich household who alongwith some hired workers run the business.

Puntius sophore (locally known as Phabou nga) is exclusively used for Ngari preparation although so many other minor carp species are also available in the State. The essential ingredients and equipments used in the production process of this valuable product are given below.

Ngari chaphu (Pots)

Ngari chaphu as it is locally known are round-bottomed, narrow neck earthen pots specially designed for the purpose of Ngari production in Manipur. It is also known as Kharung in some localities of Manipur. For the preparation of Ngari, jars of varied sizes can be used which can hold up to 15-75 kg of fish.

Each jar used in the preparation of Ngari costs around 65 to 70 rupees. The thickness of these pots is about 1.5-2.5 cm. These pots are brick red in colour in the initial phases. The product's quality is enhanced as the pots are used repeatedly for many years and as these older chaphus become more air-tight thus giving an air-tight condition for better fish fermentation.

The cost incurred for its production is highly reduced as the oils used in the production process are minimised because newly used chaphus absorb more oils. Before using these chaphus for the purpose, pre-processing of chaphus is an essential step in Ngari production. This is achieved by smearing the inner walls of these chaphus with oil and drying them in sunlight.

The oils used in the smearing process may be of any vegetable oils like sunflower, mustard or palm oil. As the oils are getting absorbed and finally fully dried, another step of oil layering is done and it is dried once again. The oil smearing and sun drying process is continued for a week to two weeks time until the chaphus become fully saturated with the oil such that they are unable to absorb furthermore oil on its inner wall.

This avoids the fish from sticking on the inner surface of the jar. Now these chaphus are ready to be used for the production of Ngari. The earthen jars are tightly bound by wires to facilitate easy handling and to avoid leakage and breakage.

Oils used in Ngari preparation

The oils used in the production process may be of either plant or fish origin based on the availability and cost of the oil. But most production centres in Manipur use mainly vegetable oils like mustard oil and sunflower. But there are reports of fish oil incorporation in varying amounts in some production sites as fish oil provides some of the essential n-3 fatty acids found in it. In case of commercial production vegetable is used exclusively as it reduces the cost of production.

Covering paste This is used mainly for the purpose of covering the mouth of the chaphus. This is prepared from fish powder or even from some trash fishes and from Puntius which are discarded during drying process. They are made into fine powders by drying in sunlight and then grinding them. They are then moisten using little amount of water to make them into dough like paste. Now they are ready to fill in the mouth of the chaphus.

Covering leaf

These are the temporary covers for sealing the covering paste in the chaphu mouth. Any broad leaf of creepers can serve the purpose of covering leaf. In Manipur, most commonly used cover leaf is the Musa paradacea leaf. Other leaves like bottle gourd and catesu leaves can also be used. In the case of unavailability of the above mentioned leaves newspaper can be an ideal replacement.

Sealing the mouth

Finally the mouth of the chaphu is sealed tightly using a thick mud paste prepared from humus rich, fine coarse soil. In some cases old rug sacs are also used after making them very much solid and compact.

To be continued.....

References

• Arman, U. M., Basu, S. and Nayak, B.B., 2003 Seedal – an indigenous fermented fish product from India. InfoFish International , 6: 49-51.
• Cooke, R. D., Twiddy, D. R. and Alan Reilly, P. J., 1993 Lactic fermentation of fish as a low-cost means of food preservation. In: Fish Fermentation Technology (eds. Lee, C.H., Steinkraus, K. H. and Alan Reilly, P. J.). Tokyo: United Nations University Press. pp. 291–300.
• Holzapfel, W. H., Haberer, P., Snel, J., Schillinger, U. and Huisin't Veld, J. H. J., 1998 Overview of gut flora and probiotics. International Journal of Food Microbiology, 41: 85-101.
• Jeyaram, K., Singh, T. H., Romi, W., Devi, A. R., Singh, W. M., Dayanidhi, H., Singh, N. R. and Tamang, J. P., 2009. Traditional fermented foods of Manipur. Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge, 8(1): 115-121.
• Sarojnalini, C. and Singh, W. V., 1988. Composition and digestibility of fermented fish foods of Manipur. Journal of Food Science and Technology, 25: 349-351.
• Thapa, N., 2002. Studies on microbial diversity associated with some fish products of the Eastern Himalayas. Ph.D. thesis, North Bengal University, India.
• Thapa, N., Pal, J. and Tamang, J. P., 2004. Microbial diversity in ngari, hentak and tungtap, fermented fish products of North-East India. World Journal of Microbiology & Biotechnology, 20: 599-607.