Sunday, February 19, 2012

Chili Pork with Curry Leaves

I love spicy food, I would eat it everyday if I could! Now that my kids are older, they are learning to appreciate a little bit of spiciness in their food, which is fine with me! When they were younger, I would always cook a separate non-spicy dish just for them, but now, as long as the dish that I'm cooking is not too spicy, I just need to cook a little bit extra, that's all. Cooking is easier as they gets older, as they love to try out new flavours.




According to the book, "500 Curries", this recipe is from the state of Andhra Pradesh, one of the southern states of India, where the hottest chillies, known as guntur after the region where they are produced, are grown in abundance. Well, since I do not have any curry powder or chili powder made from this chili called guntur, I just used whatever I have, which is just as well, as this is not an extremely spicy dish that even my kids love it. 



Fresh curry leaves from my garden. A bowl of spices all mixed up together. However, I did add on the amount of curry powder and chili powder, as I wanted to have more gravy, although this is a fairly dry dish.



This is a really easy dish to cook, except that you have to watch out that it does not dry out, adding some water when necessary from time to time, do not add too much, as this is a fairly dry dish. I would advise to use a non-stick saucepan for this. As I do not like to use too much of coconut milk in my curries, I used only 1/2 cup. During cooking, I added in some water from time to time to prevent the dish from drying out and getting burnt.



Really good with white rice. I have some leftover and the kids was asking for it the next day! 

I'm sharing this with :
Cookbook Sunday hosted by Couscous & Consciousness
Full Plate Thursday hosted by Miz Helen's Country Cottage

Chilli Pork with Curry Leaves
(adapted from "500 Curries" , Mridula Baljekar)
2tbsp vegetable oil
1 large onion, finely sliced
2in piece fresh root ginger, finely grated
4 garlic cloves, crushed
12 curry leaves
3tsp extra-hot curry paste, or 60ml/4tbsp hot curry powder (I use 6 heaped tbsp curry powder)
1 tbsp chilli powder (I use 1 heaped tbsp)
1tsp Chinese five-spice powder
1tsp ground turmeric
900gm pork, cubed
3/4 cup thick coconut milk (I use 1/2 cup)
salt
red onion, finely sliced, to garnish
Indian bread and fruit raita, to serve

  1. Heat the oil in a karahi, wok or large pan, and fry the onion, ginger, garlic and curry leaves until the onion is soft.
  2. Add the curry paste or powder, chilli, and five-spice powder, turmeric and salt to the pan. Stir well.
  3. Add the pork to the pan and stir well over a medium heat to seal and evenly brown the meat pieces. Cover the pan with the lid and cook for about 20-25 minutes.
  4. Stir in the coconut milk and simmer; still covered, for about 10 minutes or until the meat is cooked. Toward the end of cooking, uncover the pan to allow the excess liquid to reduce and the sauce to thicken slightly. Garnish with red onion and serve with Indian bread, and with fruit raita, for a cooling effect.

28 comments:

  1. gosh! you cook the most delicious looking meals! I should stop coming to your blog late at night~ getting hungry :)

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  2. Joyce, I love this dish - I truly cannot wait to try this. I love a bit of spicy, love some pork, love some coconut and curry. I'm am totally envious that you have curry leaves in your garden - when we can get them here they are always imported, usually from Fiji.

    Thank you so much for sharing this at Cookbook Sundays.

    xo

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  3. I also love spicy dishes and this sounds so tasty and looks a really delicious rich colour too.

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  4. joyce, i want to learn cooking varieties of curries. does this taste more like chinese or indian curries?

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    1. Hi Lena,
      This tastes more like an Indian dry curry. Try it! It would be nice to eat with dosai, idli or even roti canai. :)

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  5. I just love spicy dishes! This chilli pork sounds really good!

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  6. Hi my beloved friend!
    Wonderful and delicious!
    Many greetings and kisses

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  7. No wonder I could smell curry as I was preparing dinner. So it was you after all! lol..send some over plzzz..

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  8. Just like you, I love spicy food very much! Hmm...I want this with steamed rice...

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  9. Joy, I'm with you, we LOVE spicy food and we absolutely love curries. This is a dish that would be a big hit at our table. This looks so delicious. I'd love this with some basmati rice and naan. Yum!

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  10. This is also my favorite curry, I love dry curries!

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  11. Love curry and one year I did find a curry plant to add to my herbs; love the smell and the taste. This is being saved in Pinterest.
    Rita

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  12. This looks so flavourful and tasty. I love good spicy food like this.

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  13. This looks delicious, but I'll have to keep a large glass of ice water near me when I eat this!

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  14. That looks delicious, I love these colors.
    Kisses.

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  15. What extraordinary flavors! Would love to have fresh curry leaves, but regrdless this would be delightful at the dinner table :)
    Hope you are having a great weekend...

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  16. Homemade curry leaves! - *envy*

    It's difficult to grow such a tropical kind of plants in Melbourne and really envy you for having such a nice plant for your delicious cooking. This chilli pork is superb!

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  17. I can't get fresh curry leaves as easy as I could so all these spicy dishes would always be missing that punch of aroma if I were to cook them.

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  18. Look at your curry, I feel like want to cook curry tomorrow.

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  19. Looks scrumptious and what a great combination of flavors! Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

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  20. This looks like an awesome dish with wonderful flavor. I really want to try this recipe very soon! Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday and have a fabulous week.
    Come Back Soon!
    Miz Helen

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  21. Great looking dish!Have a lovely week!

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  22. Look so scrumptious... the use of Chinese five-spice powder will surely draw up appetite...will try this soon...

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  23. This curry looks amazing. Love hot and spicy food but tend to go easy on the spices because of my little one. Would love a big bowl of that with some steamed rice.

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  24. I've had such a craving for spicy goodness for days now. I just may pick up these ingredients tomorrow when I go shopping. The house is bare since I was away for two weeks. Your dish looks mouth watering delicious!

    Thank you so much for sharing, Joyce...

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  25. Chili is one of our favorite dishes but I have never done it with pork before and I love the idea of adding in curry flavor to it!

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  26. This is a delicious looking dish. I love curries, though might have to cut down a bit on the heat.

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