Coconut milk curry (pork)
Winter days scream for comfort food and one of my go-to easy meals is curry. The curry I will make depends on what I have in my fridge and in my pantry. Today I went for an Indian curry. It is velvety, fragrant, not too spicy (although you can adjust to your taste) dish and it totally hits the spot.
My first encounter with Indian food was a tiny place on Queens Boulevard, back in New York. It was called Empire of India (it has since burned out – literally). My oldest one was just a tiny baby and the three of us would go there occasionally, pushing the stroller inside where we were welcomed with open arms and guided gently through the dishes they had to offer. Some of my fondest food memories were made in that place. It was new, it was intense, it was incredibly different and it was an escape into a new world; a delicious world.
Coconut milk curry with pork
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 – 2 lbs. boneless pork shoulder, cubed
- 2 tablespoons of coconut oil (I should have used ghee, but had none)
- 1 large white onion, diced
- 2 medium tomatoes, diced (I had one large one and added 2 Campari tomatoes)
- 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 piece of ginger (about the size of a thumb), minced
- 1 lb. green beans (you can use green beans or long beans)
- 2 teaspoons garam masala
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon Madras Curry
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons turmeric powder
- 2-3 dried red chilis (I used chili de arbol)
- 1 13.5 oz. can of coconut milk
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Cilantro for serving
Directions
- Take 1 teaspoon (of the 2) of the garam masala and I mix it with the cubed pork. Let it marinate for at least 1 hour or overnight in the fridge.
- Heat the coconut oil over high heat and add the pork to the pan. Sauté until browned on all sides. Remove from the pan and keep warm. It doesn’t have to be fully cooked as it will finish cooking in the sauce.
- Add the diced onion to the pan. Cook on medium heat, stirring for about 7-8 min. Scrape all the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. You want all that goodness in the sauce. Add the ginger and the garlic and all the other spices (the remaining garam masala, coriander, cumin, turmeric, Madras Curry and chilis). Cook and stir quickly so the spices don’t burn.
- Add the tomatoes to the pan and cook until they start falling apart.
- Add the coconut milk and simmer for about 5 minutes
- Return the pork to the pan, cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 12-15 min.
- Add the beans to the pan, cook for 1 minute, cover and turn the heat off. Let it rest for about 10 min – the beans will cook from the residual heat; you want them a little crunchy.
- Serve over white rice, topped with a good amount of cilantro.
I washed this down with a delicious sour ale from a local brewery: Fat Orange Cat. The sour ale was a perfect match for the sweet & spicy curry. You can find their page here: https://fatorangecatbrewco.com/
All photos are the work of my talented husband, a professional photographer. You can find his other work here: https://www.dariuszterepka.photography/