Chili Pork with Curry Leaves

I love spicy food, I would eat it everyday if I could! Now that my kids are older, they are learning to appreciate a little bit of spiciness in their food, which is fine with me! When they were younger, I would always cook a separate non-spicy dish just for them, but now, as long as the dish that I'm cooking is not too spicy, I just need to cook a little bit extra, that's all. Cooking is easier as they gets older, as they love to try out new flavours.

According to the book, "500 Curries", this recipe is from the state of Andhra Pradesh, one of the southern states of India, where the hottest chillies, known as guntur after the region where they are produced, are grown in abundance. Well, since I do not have any curry powder or chili powder made from this chili called guntur, I just used whatever I have, which is just as well, as this is not an extremely spicy dish that even my kids love it. 

Fresh curry leaves from my garden. A bowl of spices all mixed up together. However, I did add on the amount of curry powder and chili powder, as I wanted to have more gravy, although this is a fairly dry dish.

This is a really easy dish to cook, except that you have to watch out that it does not dry out, adding some water when necessary from time to time, do not add too much, as this is a fairly dry dish. I would advise to use a non-stick saucepan for this. As I do not like to use too much of coconut milk in my curries, I used only 1/2 cup. During cooking, I added in some water from time to time to prevent the dish from drying out and getting burnt.

Really good with white rice. I have some leftover and the kids was asking for it the next day! 

I'm sharing this with :
Cookbook Sunday hosted by Couscous & Consciousness
Full Plate Thursday hosted by Miz Helen's Country Cottage

Chilli Pork with Curry Leaves
(adapted from "500 Curries" , Mridula Baljekar)
2tbsp vegetable oil
1 large onion, finely sliced
2in piece fresh root ginger, finely grated
4 garlic cloves, crushed
12 curry leaves
3tsp extra-hot curry paste, or 60ml/4tbsp hot curry powder (I use 6 heaped tbsp curry powder)
1 tbsp chilli powder (I use 1 heaped tbsp)
1tsp Chinese five-spice powder
1tsp ground turmeric
900gm pork, cubed
3/4 cup thick coconut milk (I use 1/2 cup)
salt
red onion, finely sliced, to garnish
Indian bread and fruit raita, to serve

1. Heat the oil in a karahi, wok or large pan, and fry the onion, ginger, garlic and curry leaves until the onion is soft.
2. Add the curry paste or powder, chilli, and five-spice powder, turmeric and salt to the pan. Stir well.
3. Add the pork to the pan and stir well over a medium heat to seal and evenly brown the meat pieces. Cover the pan with the lid and cook for about 20-25 minutes.
4. Stir in the coconut milk and simmer; still covered, for about 10 minutes or until the meat is cooked. Toward the end of cooking, uncover the pan to allow the excess liquid to reduce and the sauce to thicken slightly. Garnish with red onion and serve with Indian bread, and with fruit raita, for a cooling effect.