Burmese Red Pork Curry

It's not often that I cook Sunday dinner since Sunday usually tends to be a lazy day, but I've decided that I'm going to make an effort to cook more regularly, even if it's just for the two of us.

This Sunday's attempt is Burmese Red Pork Curry.

I served the curry with steamed broccoli and brown rice. That picture above is my very own. That's what our dinner actually looked like. *happy smile* Verdict? It turned out delish! The Boy even had seconds.

I'll post the recipe for this as well, which I got out of the book called "Slow Cooker Curry by Sunil Vijayakar. (As an aside: I used to have a tailor called Sunil. I remember him fondly from my days of living in Qatar - totally irrelevant, I know *grin*).

Here is what I did different from the recipe:

• I doubled the tomato puree and soy sauce amount that was listed in the recipe
• I added an extra 1 teaspoon of curry powder
• I also added an extra 1/2 teaspoon of chili powder mix (my own concoction - I'll add the mix ingredients below) for extra kick.
• The curry was still quite liquidy (I checked) after 5 hours, so I took off the lid of the cast iron casserole pot that I was cooking it in and just covered it lightly with foil for the last hour at 120 degrees C (instead of the original 90 degrees C). I think, it being cast iron, it was sealing really well and the liquid was not evaporating.
• After it came out of the oven at hour 6, the curry was still quite liquid so I put it on the stove and set it to boil. I then mixed up some magic powder (okay, corn flour - 3 teaspoons with 2 tablespoons of cold water) and added it to the curry and then let it simmer for a minute, stirring gently until it thickened.

Here's the RECIPE: (I used the oven, not a slow cooker, so the recipe's been modified accordingly).

Ingredients:

• 100ml (3 ½ fl oz) light soy sauce
• 100ml (3 ½ fl oz) tomato puree
• 875g ( 1 ¾ lb) boneless pork loin
• 2 tablespoons groundnut oil
• 1 tablespoon soft brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 2 garlic cloves, finely slices
• 1 tablespoon peeled and finely grated root ginger

Instructions:

• In a small bowl, mix together the soy sauce and tomato puree. Put the pork in a non-reactive dish, pour over the soy mixture and toss to coat evenly. Cover and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for 6 – 8 hours or overnight.
• Heat oil in a heavy saucepan (or a casserole pot) over a medium heat. Add sugar and stir for a few minutes until sugar has dissolved and is starting to caramelize. Add the curry powder, garlic and ginger and stir fry for 2 minutes.
• Add the maninated pork (including any marinade) and stir to mix well. Remove from heat. Add just enough water to cover the meat, cover with the lid and put into oven at 90 degrees C. Cook in oven for 6 – 8 hours or until pork is tender and liquid is almost evaporated.

Note: if have a slow cooker, transfer mixture into slow cooker and cook on low for 6 – 8 hours per above.

And here's the ingredients for the chili concoction:

Mixed in an indeterminate amount:

• Hot chili powder
• Dried chili flakes
• Paprika (I can't remember if it was hot or mild that I used)
• Hot cayenne pepper ground

I have to admit that this is the first slow cooking recipe that I've done seriously and the first curry that I've ever cooked. I had a few anxious moments when I was not sure if the pork would be tender enough (I really should not have worried, after all the darn thing was cooking for 6 blinking hours) and when there was still a lot of liquid left in the pot.





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