kitchen flavours

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Pork Curry with Potatoes

Do you have one of those days that when you buy a certain ingredient with something in mind, and totally use it for something else at the spur of the moment? It always happens to me. This is one of those times. I bought a piece of pork belly for a Chinese dish from the morning market. That very same afternoon, the urge for curry and potatoes with steaming hot white rice is just too strong to resist! So that's how that piece of pork belly which was intended for a Chinese stew dish ended up in a curry dish!

This is a simple curry dish that I have always cooked in my home. It is tasty and really good eaten with plain white rice. The gravy is slightly thick, if you like a thinner gravy, just add a little more water. I love lots of potatoes in the curry, when the taste of the curry goes into the potatoes after the braising, they are really yummy!

I'm sharing with these lovely blogs :

Cookbook Sundays at Brenda's Canadian Kitchen

Potluck Sunday at Mommy's Kitchen

Full Plate Thursday at Miz Helen's Country Cottage

Pork Curry with Potatoes
600gm pork belly (cut to bite-sized cubes)
4 medium potatoes (peeled and cut to cubes)

To marinate pork :
5 tbsp meat curry powder
1/2 tsp tumeric powder
1 tsp chili powder (optional)
1 sprig curry leaves
1-1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup water

3-4 tbsp oil
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 pc 3" cinnamon stick
5 green cardamon pods
2 star anise
4 cloves
1 medium onion (chopped)
1 medium tomato (chopped)
salt to taste
some water

Method :

Marinate pork with curry powder, tumeric powder, chili powder, curry leaves, salt and water, mix until pork is coated with spices, keep covered and keep aside for 30 minutes.
Heat oil. Saute ginger garlic paste over low heat until fragrant. Add in cinnamon stick, cardamon pods, star anise and cloves, stir until fragrant.
Add in marinated pork and stir for about 5 minutes, constantly stirring over medium heat, add some oil if appears dry. Add in chopped tomatoes, onions and salt, stir for a further 2 minutes. Add about 1/2 cup water, stir to combine, cover and simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid burning. Curry may dry out, add about 1/4 cup warm water each time it appears dry.
Simmer until pork is tender, taste and add salt if necessary. Add in potatoes, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally and add a little water each time it appears dry. Simmer for a further 10-15 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Dish out and enjoy!

Monday, January 3, 2011

1st Blog Anniversary!

Kitchen Flavours is one year old! Still a baby at blogging! I just couldn't imagine that it has been a year of blogging. I started blogging with the encouragement from my sisters. At that time, I thought that it was silly of them to encourage me! (yes, dear sisters!), mainly because I do not know what blogging is all about, whenever someone mention about blogs, I am totally ignorant! Blogging is totally alien to me. My sisters explains that since I enjoy baking and cooking so much, I could blog about it and meet other bloggers to share recipes with. And I thought that who would go to the trouble of typing out the recipes when there are other million things to do like housework, which never seems to get done! My sisters managed to convinced me to 'give it a try, you can stop anytime you want to'! So I thought, OK, I'll give it a try. Now the first step is to choose a name, and it took me days to make up my mind! LOL! My sis helped me to register and set the whole blog thing out for me.

Then I have to publish my first post! Gosh, I do not know what to write about! Besides my family, who else are going to read my blog? And if anyone else should read it, it will be complete strangers! I am not good at writing, so my first post is a very brief introduction of my favourite tree! For the first few months, only a few read or commented on my post. The numbers grew and my followers grew very slowly. My very first follower and commenter, other than my sisters, was Angie from Angie's Recipes. Angie is very sweet and very supportive. She still is, thanks Angie!

As I cooked and baked for my family and friends, most posts are created along the way, and my confidence in blogging grew. I even started another blog on gardening! I can never imagine that a year later, I would have a follower of more than 70 and page views of more than 20,000. And all this is because of your support and encouragement. The 'strangers' that read my blogs has now become foodie cyber friends across the globe. It has been an interesting year of sharing and learning. I have learnt so much from all of you, the interesting food and recipes that I have not seen or heard of. Food and desserts that I have heard of but not interested in trying out, now has been bugging at the back of my mind until the day I try them out! Read about your family, tradition, celebrations, the ups and downs in our daily life, all this reflects how similar we all are even though we are at different corners of the globe.

Thank you to all of you for the support and encouragement. Here's to another year of great blogging. Wishing all of you a great and happy 2011, and another year of sharing and learning from each other. Cheers!