Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Spicy Pork Curry

Yum

I have always been a curry lover.  Even when I was just a little girl, spicy curry always made my mouth start to water.  I love to eat it with a rice and curry meal or even simply with some toasted roti or naan.  This is a very spicy version of pork curry. Hence the word "fiery" in the title.  Now of course, the spice level and chili is always to your taste so if you want to hold back on some of that fire... just add some paprika with the chili powder to tame the flames.  
 
This pork curry is my mother's recipe.  I think she makes the best Sri Lankan curry around, so when I want authentic curry I always trust her recipes and cooking advice.

This time around I made one small change from my mother's recipe. She adds vinegar to her recipe, but I decided to add a can of tomato sauce instead so I could really get a fiery color. Actually, using the tomato sauce is something she does with chicken curry so I thought why not add it to the pork.   Either way, the tomato sauce or the vinegar is used as an acid in the curry and both will give you the same results.  Just use what ingredients you have on hand. 

I am happy to say that I have passed on my love for spicy curry to my two kids.  They dived into this curry with some toasted naan and a fried egg for breakfast... Yup breakfast! 

All I can say is this curry is a must try if you want to eat some spicy Sri Lankan pork curry.  





Ingredients:


21/2 pounds pork

Pork marinade
  • 8 oz can tomato sauce (or 2 Tbs cider vinegar)
  • 2 Tbs of Red Chili Powder or to taste **(see note below)
  • 2 Tbs of Roasted Curry Powder
  • 1 tsp of Turmeric
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 Tbs of grated garlic cloves
  • 2 Tbs of grated ginger


Aromatics:

  • 2 stalks of lemongrass bruised
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 20-30 curry leaves
  • pandan leaves
  • 1 large onion chopped
  • 2-3 green chilies (serrano) chopped
  • 1tsp of fenugreek seeds
  • 6-7 cardamom pods
  • 6-7 cloves 

 Gravy ingredients:
1 cup water (you can add 1/2 cup more water if you want more gravy)
1 cup coconut milk
red chili powder to taste
salt to taste




Directions:


I used 21/2lbs of lean pork chops for this recipe cut into 1 inch cubes. I cut around the bone of the chop and including the bone in the cooking for great flavor.  You can also use pork loin. 

Step 1:  Cut the pork and marinate it for 30 minutes or up to over-night. 

Step 2:  Heat 3 Tbs of oil in a large pan or pot on medium-high heat.  Once oil is hot, fry the listed aromatics for several minutes with a little bit of salt. 

Step 3: Now add the marinated pork and fry with the aromatics for 3-5 minutes until the pork browns.Keep stirring so nothing burns.
We decide (just by the color) that it did not look spicy enough for us so we added another 1Tbs of red chili powder.  This step is of course optional.  The red chili powder gives you the reddish color to the dish.  If you have a very strong brand of chili powder you can use less chili powder.  You may have a more brown dish, but it all tastes good. : ). 

Step 4:  Add 1 cup water to the pan and allow to simmer on medium heat for 30-45 minutes with a lid on on medium heat.  Stir occasionally.  The pork should produce more liquid, if it does become too dry you can add a little more water.


Once the pork is cooked through and a "reddish-brown" color, add 1 cup of coconut milk or regular cow's milk and stir well.  Taste for seasoning here.  You can adjust the salt if necessary.  You can also add more chili powder.   ** if the dish happens to be too spicy for you, you can add more milk to dilute some of the spiciness.

Simmer for another 5 minutes and give your final taste for salt and seasoning.  If you adjust anything here, simmer for another few minutes.   If not, you can turn off the stove at this point.  Your pork curry is done.   

Serves 6-8 people.  Serve with white/brown rice and mild lentil curry or other vegetable curries.  You can also serve this with fried rice, roti, chapathi, naan etc... Enjoy.

 

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