Pork Balchao

Last night, I tried out a curry recipe that Aaron had forwarded to me. (He bought a 500 curry recipes book) ((He LOVES curry)) The recipe is Pork Balchao and it originates from Western India, this one specifically from Goa. I have always wanted to visit Goa, it is another one of those romantically colonized port cities that has a beautiful fusion of cultures. This explains the enmass of hippies that made Goa their home back in the 1970s. (I saw that on Travel channel)

I made it without chillies as it is out of season here and mostly because I could not be arsed to make an extra trip to the supermarket. Despite that, sans chillies, it was still amazing because the spices together is just out of this world. I changed a few things about it, instead of tomato puree, I added real tomatoes and a bit of spicy tomato sauce. The total cooking time is about an hour, which afterwards, produces a very tender pork curry with a thick sauce (reduced over an hour) that makes your taste buds dance the macarena.. with style.

Ingredients:

4 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp crushed garlic
1 piece of cinnamon stick (broken up)
2-4 torn red chillies
2 tsp cumin seeds
10 black pepper corns
1.5 lb of cubed pork leg
1 tsp ground tumeric
1 cup warm water
1.5 tbsp tomato puree
1 large onion, finely sliced
1 tbsp cider vinegar
salt
sugar

1) Heat a shallow pot and saute the ginger and garlic for 30 seconds.
2) Add the spices (cinnamon stick, chillies, cumin seeds, pepper corn and tumeric) and sautee for another 30 seconds. Make sure to stir often.
3) Add pork and stir around regularly for 5 minutes.
4) Add water, tomato puree and chilli powder. Bring to a boil and then simmer gently for 35 minutes with lid on.
5) In separate pan, saute onions until brown for 8-9 minutes.
6) Add onion along with sugar, salt and vinegar into pot of pork. Stir. Cover and simmer for another 35 minutes.

ENJOY!