This fragrant and super creamy curry with pork skewers brings together two of the best cuts of pork: tenderloin, lean and juicy and belly, a bit more playful and fatty, to bring out the most intense flavours into the dish.
If you’ve been following my blog you should know how much I love Indian food. Curries are part of my diet on a weekly basis, and because I’ve spent the past two months in the mountains (far from shops with exotic ingredients and all that jazz), I couldn’t really make any curries at all. However, when the craving kicked in, I brought my core collection of spices, got some coconut milk sent over through a friend, and I got cooking.
About the dish
I made this curry a couple of months ago in Bucharest, and my entire family loved it. Even my brother, who doesn’t normally like curries very much. As a matter of fact, he even said it was one of the best dishes I have ever made! Basically, to simulate a tandoor, I marinated the meat pieces (at that point I used chicken), then popped them onto skewers and grilled them. The curry uses coconut milk and a multitude of spices, which are all blended at the end to create a creamy, silky sauce.
Why pork?
I don’t know about you, but I am utterly fed up with chicken (or its slightly better brother, turkey). Plus, I’ve just recently discovered the beautiful cut that is pork tenderloin, which (at least here in Romania) is utterly underrated and is one of the cheapest (yet most delightful to cook) cuts of pork. For a bit of an extra something, I decided to mix the tenderloin with two thin slices of pork belly: fat on, skin removed.
The recipe
This fragrant and super creamy curry with pork skewers brings together two of the best cuts of pork: tenderloin, lean and juicy and belly, a bit more playful and fatty, to bring out the most intense flavours into the dish.
Start by preparing the curry paste by adding all the ingredients (without the meat) to a chopper or blender.
Place the pieces of pork in a bowl, then coat them with half of the curry paste. Add the lime juice, then refrigerate until ready to cook. Ideally, the pork should spend a couple of hours marinating.
To prepare the sauce, melt the butter, then fry the garlic and ginger for a minute. Add the onions and spices and sauté until they become translucent and almost start disintegrating. This is very important, as they will help give the sauce the silky, soft texture.
Add the remaining curry paste, and cook on medium heat for about five minutes, stirring constantly.
Dollop the coconut milk and the tomato puree, together with about 400ml of water and the stock cube.
Simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring every now and then to make sure the sauce doesn’t burn at the bottom of the pan.
In the last five minutes, add the sugar and fresh coriander.
Finally, transfer it to a blender to give the curry its soft, silky, creamy texture.
While you are waiting for the curry sauce to get done, add the meat pieces onto skewers, then grill them. I did it for about 20 minutes on an outdoors grill, with the pork very close to the hot coals. You can get a similar result using your oven’s grill, just put it on high, and make sure to turn the meat as soon as it browns. Don’t leave it in there for too long: you want the pork to be juicy!
Finally, coat the pork in the sauce and serve with some basmati rice (and a garlic naan). Enjoy!
Until next time,
Ioana
