Pork Vindaloo

Last time I went to our butcher's, they were advertising pork and even had small booklets with recipes for the customers to take home. Which I did, and there are a few interesting recipes there that I intend to try out. However, I decided to make a curry tonight because I still have a substantial surplus of grated ginger and roast garlic in the freezer and I am after all trying to clear it out.

Thus, I flicked through my "Fat Free Indian Cookery" book by Mridula Baljekar. My thought was to just pick any curry and use pork with it, however there was a pork section and the second recipe was for pork vindaloo. As it also turned out, I only needed two ingredients - pork and cider. I had all other ingredients. Besides, Lundulph quite likes cooking with cider, so had no objections to this.

However, I completely forgot to read through the whole recipe and when I finally started cooking, it was actually way too late to follow the instructions. But the curry turned out quite tasty anyway, so I'm rushing to write it down, before I forget anything.

Ingredients

650 g boneless leg of pork
4 green cardamom pods
4 cloves
2 tbsp finely grated ginger
1 tbsp pressed garlic
½ tsp mustard seeds
¼ tsp fenugreek seeds
½ tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 tsp very hot crushed dried chillies
2 tbsp cider vinegar
250 ml medium-dry apple cider
5 cm piece of cinnamon
8 portabello mushrooms
2 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp salt
1 large onion
1 large handful of lentil sprouts
1 tsp tamarind paste
1 tsp soft brown sugar

Method

1. Trim off any visible fat and sinews from the meat as much as possible, then cut into small bite-sized chunks and place in a bowl.
2. Mix together the ginger, garlic, mustard seed, fenugreek seeds, black pepper, chillies and vinegar, then add to the meat and stir through so all pieces get coated with this "marinade". Set aside for 30 minutes or so.
3. In the mean time, peel the mushrooms, dice and place in a bowl. Peel and finely chop the onion and place in a separate bowl.
4. Place the meat along with the "marinade" in a casserole dish and heat up on medium heat. Stir frequently until the meat goes opaque.
5. Add the cider and cinnamon, cover and let simmer for about 30 minutes.
6. Remove the lid, then add the mushrooms, paprika, salt and onion and stir through. Keep stirring every now and then and let simmer uncovered for a further 10 minutes.
7. Stir in the lentil sprouts, tamarind paste and soft brown sugar, simmer for a few more minutes if needed, to reduce the liquid a bit.

Actually, I used cloudberry vinegar, which I bought from IKEA because it seemed intriguing. However, I didn't like the way it tasted, so I've been looking to use it up somehow and this seemed like a good opportunity.

Because of the mustard seeds and vinegar, Lundulph thought I was making "brown sauce". The curry turned out very nice indeed, despite not following the instructions in the recipe. Perhaps the meat could have benefitted from either marinating or cooking a little longer, it felt a bit tough and dry, but overall the vindaloo was really tasty. I served it with boiled potatoes, which worked quite well. Despite the name vindaloo, this dish wasn't extremely hot, though I guess this can be regulated by using higher or lower amounts of chilli flakes and mustard seeds.