Duck Berma

Duck cooked with fermented fish — duck pieces (preferably native country duck with gamey, flavourful fat) cooked slowly in their own fat with shallots, ginger, garlic, green chilli, dried red chilli, turmeric, and berma until the duck is completely tender and the berma seasons the fat-enriched gravy. The duck's pronounced gaminess is a feature rather than a flaw in Tripuri cooking; the berma's fermented depth complements and deepens the duck flavour rather than masking it. No coconut, no tomato, no southern-style curry base. The fat from the duck renders out during the long cooking and becomes the sauce medium, thickened by the dissolved berma. Made for the Ker festival and other significant Tripuri religious celebrations where duck is the prescribed meat offering. Eaten with bangui (sticky rice) at festive meals.