Kerala Pork Fry

This is a classic dish that originated in Kerala, my mom though from Tamilnadu and tamilian by birth was born in Kerala. In the part of Tamilnadu closest to Kerala this dish is also very popular. This dish is particularly sentimental to me because every time I went home to visit my mom in Chennai she would make it for me. She had once given me a notepad full of handwritten recipes I had her write down but for some reason this was not one of them. I had always wanted to try and make it but never got around to it.

When COVID came around, I finally started trying to cook all of the dishes in my moms recipe book and one weekend I had want to cook it but realized I didn't have the recipe. I told myself I would call my mom that weekend and ask her to send my the recipe, sadly that weekend my mom passed away -- likely from COVID.

Ever since I tried a few times by downloading recipes from the internet and trying them, I kept getting disappointed. I consider myself a pretty good cook but somehow this recipe eluded me. I finally decided to take a few bits from a few of the recipes I had and keep trying until I got it right.

The first was a disaster, it was so spicy as to be inedible, the second was better but kind of watery and still very spicy, I tried to get the kids to eat it and they thought it was too spicy. There were two big challenges I had -- too spicy and couldn't get it to be dry -- not quite fried but dry.

This dish has just about every Indian spice you have come across and so the proportions were tricky to balance out -- the recipes on the internet just did not work for me. After about 5 tries I finally got it very close to the way Mom made it. The good news was that everytime I made it even during my failed tries, it reminded me of my Mom and how much she meant to me.

Ingredients

1 lb of pork butt

1 large onion sliced

2 medium ripe tomatoes sliced

4 garlic cloves finely chopped

1/2 inch of ginger slivered

2 green Thai or Indian chillies

2 sprigs of curry leaves

2 tbsp of vinegar

3/4 tsp of salt

3 tbsp of coconut oil

2 small or 1 large sliced shallot

1 dried whole red chilli

Coriander leaves

1 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp fennel seed

1 tsp each of coriander, cumin, black pepper

3/4 tsp of turmeric

1/2 tsp each of red chili powder and garam masala

1/2 tsp each of mustard seeds and fennel seeds

3-4 cloves

2 bay leaves

Preparation

Cut the pork butt into cubes about 3/4 of an inch each. Mix well in a large bowl with the vinegar, salt and turmeric, set aside.

In a large pressure cooker mix the onions, tomatoes, garlic, ginger, 1 sprig of curry leaves, cumin, coriander, black pepper, red chili powder and garam masala and a tbsp of coconut oil. Mix well. Add the pork mix and mix well. Close the pressure cooker and turn on the heat to high. Wait until the sixth whistle, then turn the heat off and wait for about 5 minutes before releasing the steam carefully.

After the steam has fully released (check one last time by using a fork or knife to pull the valve up until it stops hissing), carefully open the pressure cooker keeping your face away from the opening. Throughly mix everything, there should be some liquid with the mix so on low heat simmer while stirring occasionally until all of the water is gone. Turn off the heat and keep it aside.

In a large fry pan or saute pan, add the remaining 2 tbsp of coconut oil. Add the mustard seeds and fennel seeds until the mustard starts to burst. Now add the shallots, cloves, a sprig of curry leaves, crumbled red chillies, bay leaves and saute until the shallots are browned. Now add the meat mix and saute until it is very dry, some oil may rise to the top - for about 5 minutes.

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with Rice or chapatis