Pork Vindaloo

Off lately, the family and I have been watching the BBC food series on our iPad. One of the presenters being Madhur Jaffrey, we love the way she weaves around different states of India, cooking up dishes relevant to the state in exotic locations. Like the Pork Vindaloo, a dish which the Goans prepare a lot. Influenced by the Portuguese settlements that arrived in the early 16th century in Goa, the name Vindaloo is derived from the Portuguese dish "Carne de Vinha d'Alhos", which means a dish of meat(pork) with wine(vin) and garlic(alho). It was fascinating to watch Madhur cook in the famous ruins of the St. Augustine's monastery in Old Goa. She sufficiently inspired me to try the same in my german kitchen and the result being, we have a new found love.

When you do intend to prepare this, I suggest you to plan in advance as this recipe requires overnight marination. 

Ingredients:

• 1250 grams pork, cleaned, washed and cut into big cubes
• 1 tsp salt
• 5 tbsps brown/malt vinegar
• 6 cloves crushed garlic
• 3 large onions sliced
• 2 medium chopped tomatoes
• 3 slit green chillies
• 3 tbsps oil
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 cup water

For the MARINADE:
TO POWDER:

• 12 long dry red chillies
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 3" cinnamon stick
• 12 cloves
• 1/2 tsp pepper corns
• 6 cardamoms

TO GRIND TO A PASTE:

• 12 cloves garlic
• 2" piece ginger
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 5 tbsps vinegar

Method:

1. Apply salt and 5 tbsps brown vinegar to the meat and keep aside for 2 hours.
2. Meanwhile grind the ingredients coarsely mentioned in TO POWDER.
3. Grind the ingredients to a paste mentioned in TO GRIND TO A PASTE.
4. Mix the powdered spices and the ground paste together to form a thick dry paste.
5. Apply half of the above paste to the marinated meat and refrigerate it overnight. Refrigerate the remaining paste too (Pic 1 and 2 above).
6. On the following day, slice the onions, crush the garlic, chop the tomatoes and slit the green chillies.
7. In a deep bottomed vessel heat the oil.
8. When hot, drop in the crushed garlic and fry for a few seconds till you get an aroma.
9. Add the sliced onions and fry till golden brown (Pic 3 above).
10. Drop in the slit green chillies, chopped tomatoes, the remaining paste and sugar. Fry well for about 5 to 8 minutes on high heat. 
11. Add the marinated meat and continue frying for another 5 minutes.
12. Add a cup of water *(see note), bring to simmer and cook for 45 minutes on medium heat.
13. Adjust salt to taste, remove from heat and garnish with slit green chillies.
14. Pork Vindaloo can be had with rice or bread of your choice.

Notes:

1. You can substitute brown with white vinegar.
2. The water that has been used to clean the mixer of the ground paste can be kept aside and used in the preparation.
3. Pork Vindaloo can be kept for up to a week in the refrigerator. The longer you keep it, the better it tastes with each passing day. 

Pork Bafat

Ingredients:

• 1 kilogram pork cut into cubes
• 5 big onions(cubed)
• 2 inch ginger finely chopped
• 1 pod garlic peeled and halved
• 5-6 green chillies slit
• marble sized tamarind
• 4 cloves and cinnamon sticks each
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 tbsp bafat powder( can increase the quantity depending on tolerance to spice)
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• salt to taste

Method:

1. Wash the pork pieces, drain well and keep aside.
2. Soak tamarind in 3 tbsps water.
3. In a big vessel, mix the pieces of pork with the onion, ginger, garlic, green chillies, spices, bafat powder, tamarind water, and salt.
4. Cook on a low flame for an hour, stirring at repeated intervals.
5. When almost done add the vinegar and mix well.
6. Serve hot with sannas, appams or a bowl of hot rice.

Pepper Pork

Ingredients and Method :-

• 1 kg pork (cubes)
• 3 tbsp pepper powder
• a pinch of turmeric
• salt
• 2 tbsp vinegar

Mix all together and cook until done. Then add 1 tbsp soya sauce and 2 tbsp tomato sauce. Mix together and keep.

In another vessel heat 2 tbsp oil. Add 4 big onions(cubes), 1 pod garlic, 1" ginger, 4 green chillies and fry.

Add this to the cooked pork, mix well and serve with hot rice.

Chilly Pork

Growing up in a Mangalorean household, saw me helping my mother, sunday after sunday, year after year, preparing the shindap( a combination of onions, ginger, garlic and chillies which is chopped and mixed with the meat) for the pork dish. Yes, I am talking of the pork bafath, which is every Mangalorean's favourite dish, wherever in the world they may be. Not that it was my favourite, I did eat it, but never relished the fat that came along with it. And to make matters worse, my mother would see that we never left any bit of food that was served to us.

       Fast forward now to my children. They too faced the similar problem of not liking fat in the meat and hence not wanting to eat pork at all. Believing in not forcing children to eat what they don't like, saw me cooking less of pork which did take other mangaloreans by surprise. Not until I came across Lolita Crasta's recipes of pork with a twist. She uses the bafath powder along with other ingredients and mark my words, I now face no problem with my the combination of kids and pig . Here goes the recipe :-

Ingredients:-

• 1 kg pork washed and cut into small pieces
• 2 tbsp Bafath Powder
• salt to taste
• 1 cup tamarind pulp
• 1 tbsp tomato sauce
• 1 tbsp chilli sauce
• 1 tbsp oil 
• 4 onions (cubes)
• 1 pod garlic(chopped)
• 1" ginger(chopped)
• 4 green chillies (slit)
• 2 tbsp vinegar optional

Method:

1. In a thick bottomed vessel, mix the pork along with the bafath powder, salt and tamarind pulp.
2. Cook till almost done.
3. Switch of the flame, add the tomato and chilli sauces. Mix well and keep aside for an hour.
4. In another vessel, heat the oil.
5. Drop in the cubed onions, chopped garlic, ginger and slit chillies. Fry well on a high flame till everything looks a light brown. Take care to not burn.
6. After frying well, add this to the above pork and mix thoroughly. Cook the pork and fried onion mix for another 5 to 10 minutes. If needed add the vinegar. Adjust salt to taste. Garnish with spring onions. Serve hot with rice or bread.