I’ve never had curry this good. Seriously. And just as Speedy was saying how bored he was with curried stews, I served this for lunch today and all he could say was how delicious it was.
What is it?
It is a curried dish. But, instead of a wet stew, you have a dry stew. The pork is pre-cooked, shredded then cooked in coconut milk, herbs, and spices until the mixture is quite dry. The pork finishes cooking in the coconut oil rendered from the coconut cream.
If you’re not into flat breads, or can’t find paratha, serve the pulled pork curry with rice and it will be just as good.
Cardamom shells
Place the pork in a preheated 400F oven and roast for an hour or until nicely browned (if using a turbo broiler, there is no need to preheat). I only used one of the three pieces of pork in the photo above. Measure the coriander seeds, and cumin seeds and discard the cardamom shells to get the pods.
Dry roast the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, and cardamom pods in a small frying pan.
Place the roasted spices, chilies, lemongrass, curry powder, and coconut milk in the blender and process until no solid bits are visible. Using two forks (or your fingers if the pork is cooked cool enough to handle), pull the pork meat into shreds. Heat the cooking oil in a frying pan. Saute the garlic, onion, and ginger just until fragrant.
Ingredients
500 g. of pork belly (shoulder will also work), uncut
about 5 cardamom pods
1 tsp. of cumin seeds
1 tsp. of coriander seeds
2 lemongrass stalks (see tips), thinly sliced
3 bird’s eye chilies
1 tbsp. of curry powder
3 c. of coconut milk
2 tbsps. of vegetable cooking oil
1 tbsp. of minced garlic
1 tbsp. of chopped ginger
1 onion, thinly sliced
a handful of Thai basil
kaffir lime leaf
patis (fish sauce), to taste
toasted paratha (Indian flatbread available in the freezer section of better supermarkets), to serve
snipped cilantro, to garnish
