Across the highlands
Kinema
Fermented soybeans with onion, chilli and tomato — bold alongside rice
30 min·4 servings
Fermented soybeans (kinema)
Cooked soybeans from the eastern Himalaya, fermented somewhere warm for a few days until sticky and stringy. Pungent, savoury and distinctly ammoniac.
Kinema is a traditional ingredient from eastern Nepal, Sikkim and Darjeeling: cooked soybeans are wrapped in leaves or cloth and left somewhere warm for one to three days, where hay bacillus ferments them. The beans turn greyish-brown and soft, and draw fine threads when pulled apart. The smell is sharp and ammoniac, but in a dish it becomes a deep, meaty savouriness, especially when the beans are fried first. Fresh kinema keeps only a few days, so it is also sun-dried; dried kinema is firmer and needs some time to soften in a sauce. Outside the region it is hard to find, occasionally in Nepali or Indian grocery shops or by mail order, usually dried.
Substitute:
Natto, sold frozen in Asian grocery shops, is the closest substitute, since it is made with the same species of bacteria and is just as sticky and stringy. It is milder and slimier than kinema, though; frying it hard or mashing it slightly brings it closer. Soybean pastes such as miso are not a substitute, as they lack the whole-bean texture and the characteristic smell.
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