Tomato and beans eromba

Eromba is one of the signature dishes of Manipuri cuisine. A dish which is simple yet exotic, it is one of the most popular dishes of Manipur – no feast is complete without it. So what exactly is eromba? It is nothing but boiled vegetables mashed with ngari (fermented fish) and morok (chilly). But don’t be misled by the simplicity of it because the taste is something Manipuris swear by.

The beauty of eromba , apart from its taste, is that it has many ‘avatars’. You can have yendem (arum) eromba, paan (colocasia) eromba, yongchak (parkia) eromba, loklei (galangal) and hawai mubi (fave beans) eromba, soibum (bamboo shoots) eromba….i will end up sounding like Bubba talking about the different shrimp recipes in Forrest Gump! The combination is endless depending on your culinary imagination and the vegetables in your pantry. And it is healthy as it is totally oil-free.

Now, having listed so many ‘exciting versions’, you would wonder why i had to give the recipe for what many would consider a vapid version of it. i mean, who in Manipur eats tomato and beans eromba? My mother was aghast when she first heard about it – understandable because when you are spoilt for choice of different vegetables for ‘traditional’ eromba, who would even consider pairing two seemingly mismatched vegetables? But when you are away from home and your taste buds long for eromba, when no other traditional ingredients for eromba can be found, then you have to resort to devious means and break culinary rules!

i first ate it, no prize for guessing, at Emaibem’s who comes up with such delicious and imaginative versions of eromba, kangsoi and singju. Since then, i love making tomato and beans eromba. Try it, your taste buds would not be offended.

Khamen asinbaga hawai asangbi ga eromba (Tomato and beans eromba)

Things you need:

1 medium tomato

1 medium potato

15-20 french beans

Ngari (Fermented fish) – 1 big one or two small ones (Depends on your taste. i don’t like too much ngari in my eromba.)

3-4 dry red chillies (For an ‘explosive’ experience, you can try umorok – naga jolokia. But be warned!)

Salt

The method:

De-string the french beans. Peel the potato (in the ‘traditional’ method, the potatoes are boiled in their jackets and peeled afterwards). After washing all of the ingredients (except ngari and yes, the salt!), put it in a pressure cooker along with a cup of water and cook for one whistle.

Now comes the ngari. My husband says eromba tastes much more delicious if the ngari is roasted. Now this might not be a good option if you are staying outside Manipur as the smell of ngari roasting can come as an olfactory shock to people not acquainted with ngari. You can put the ngari in a small steel tiffin box (when i say small, i mean a tiny tiffin box – the size of a sindoor container -sindoor dani) and put it in the pressure cooker along with the vegetables. Or if you are an impoverished cook like me without one, you can wrap the ngari in aluminium foil and let it steam along with the veggies. Or you could just put it along with a little water in a glass (microwaveable) bowl and let the microwave do the job for you.

Mash the roasted/steamed ngari with the boiled chillies and salt so that it forms a paste. You could use the back of a spoon. Mash the boiled vegetables roughly . Mix the ngari paste with the mashed vegetables. Add the water in which the vegetables was boiled – the eromba should not be too watery.

Goes well with steamed rice and omelette! Perfect for days when you are too tired or too pressed for time to rustle up anything dramatic.