Slow Cooked Pandi Curry Recipe
This is a pandi curry recipe for cooking in a kadhai/deep cooking pot.
Equipment
- 1 Kadhai(cooking pot) for cooking the pork with spices
- 1 Cast iron pan or Frying pan for roasting the spices
- 1 Grinder to grind the cumin and mustard seeds
Ingredients
- 1 kg Pork with skin and fat Cut into small pieces.
- Salt as per taste
- 1 tsp Fresh ground pepper powder
- 1 tsp Turmeric powder
- 2 tbsp Chilli powder ,use level tablespoon, not heap.
- 3 tbsp Coriander powder ,use level tablespoon, not heap.
- 3 tbsp Gingelly oil ,a bit more, if the pork has very less fat.
- 6 medium Onions ,sliced.
- 1 pod Garlic ,coarsely crushed.
- 2 inch Ginger ,crushed.
- 1 ½ tbsp Kachampuli (Coorg Vinegar) ,if you dont have Kachampuli, you can add Malt Vinegar.
Dry Spice Mix
- 1 tbsp Cumin Seeds (Jeera) ,slow roasted on a tava(frying pan), until medium brown, cooled & powdered fine.
- ½ tbsp Mustard seeds ,slow roasted on a tava(frying pan), until medium brown, cooled & powdered fine.
Instructions
- Wash the pork, (retain ½ cup water) drain, and add 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper powder, turmeric and set aside.
- Mix the sliced onions & crushed garlic with the pork.
- Heat about 3 tbsp gingelly oil (more, if the pork contains less fat), add the crushed ginger, & fry until brown. Remove browned ginger, & add to the pork.
- On very low flame, add 3 level tbsp coriander powder & keep stirring for about 1 minute. Then add 2 level tbsp chili powder, & stir until it turns coffee brown.
- Add the pork, & its washed water (about ½ cup). Cover the vessel with a lid, & cook on medium flame until all the water evaporates. Keep stirring occasionally.
- When all the water has evaporated, add warm water to just cover the meat, and cook uncovered on a medium flame until done.
- Once the pork is done, whether slow cooked, or pressure-cooked, add 1 ½ tbsp kachampuli, stir, & cook for a further 10 mins on a slow fire. Taste, & add more salt or kachampuli, as required. The oil should rise to the surface.
- Add the roasted, ground jeera and mustard seeds to the curry, stir and simmer for a few minutes before turning off the heat.
Notes
This is a slightly different, and entirely delicious pandi curry. This recipe is from my aunt’s mother, & as a cook’s tip, she shares this with us – she never hurries pork by pressure- cooking it, preferring to allow it to cook slowly, to release fat and natural flavours. The result is, deep flavours, and succulent pork, cooked to perfection. She also uses gingelly oil, which was the traditional cooking medium in Coorg, which adds its own memorable flavour to this curry. I can vouch that slow cooking the pork is worth every bit of the effort !