In Memory Of Karen Nicole Smith, 1972 - 2016

Island style Curry Pork Recipe.


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Curry wasn’t cooked often in our home when we were growing up (dad was not a fan of curry), especially pork. Mom’s go-to recipe when it came to pork was either stewed (stewed pork recipe) or roasted in the oven. When I moved to Canada and started living with my aunt (mentioned her in my cookbook), I learned to both appreciate and master the art of cooking Caribbean style curry dishes. Pork being one of them.

This curry pork is absolutely delicious.. tender pieces of pork, simmered in a delightful curry sauce which is not heavy and wickedly spicy if you break the scotch bonnet when cooking. The key here is to try and get pieces of pork with bones.. lean pork will work, but the bones gives it that extra layer of flavor (IMO).

 

You’ll Need…

3 lbs pork (I used ribs ends)
1 heaping tablespoon Caribbean Green Seasoning
1 tablespoon chopped shado beni (culantro)
2 tablespoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon roasted Geera (cumin)
1 scotch bonnet pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tomato
2 shallots
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
3 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 scallion
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
water – about 3-4 cups

Notes: If you cannot source the shado beni (aka culantro), use 2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro. I like using a madras blend curry powder, but one made in the Caribbean (Trinidad and Tobago). If doing this gluten free, do pay attention to the curry powder you use to make sure there’s no flour added. Some curry powder adds flour to their blend.

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Cut the pieces of pork (if your butcher didn’t already) and wash, drain and get ready to marinate (this is key). I used a cheap piece (already cut at the grocery store) of pork, with pieces from around the rib area of the piggy.  In a big bowl, mix in the green seasoning, salt, black pepper, ground cumin, tomato (diced), salt, ketchup, chopped scallion and grated ginger with the pieces of pork. You have two options here when it comes to the scotch bonnet pepper. If you want raw heat, cut and use as much as you want in the marination process. If you want flavor, when we get the pot going, add the whole pepper and try NOT to break it.. or you’ll release the beast!

* Remember to wear gloves and wash your hands with soap and water immediately after using cut scotch bonnet peppers.

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Give everything a good mix, cover with plastic wrap and allow to marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours (overnight is best). Let’s jump to actually cooking now! Heat the oil in a heavy bottom pan (one with a lid) on a medium heat, then add the diced onion and garlic.. lower the heat as low as it can go and allow the flavors to develop for about 3-5 minutes. With the heat still on low add the curry powder and mix well. The goal here is to cook off the raw taste of the curry so we don’t get a rawness to the finished dish.

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It will go darker, you will have that lovely bouquet of curry in your kitchen and it will have a tendency to clump.. that’s natural.  If you find that it’s too dry, feel free to add a bit more oil to the pot. After 4-5 minutes, turn the heat to high and start adding the seasoned pieces of pork to the pot. The goal is to coat the pork with the curry and to deglaze the pot.

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Bring it up to a boil (it will release natural liquid), then turn it down to medium low, cover the pot and let it go for about 8-10 minutes. Then remove the lid and turn the heat back up to high. We want to burn off all that natural liquid and really intensify that curry flavor in the pieces of pork.

In the same bowl you marinated the pork (don’t discard the marinade), swish around 3 cups of water and set aside for use. Once the liquid is burnt off, it’s time to add that water to the pan (be sure you can see some of the oil we started off at the bottom of the pan before adding the water). Bring that to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer, cover the pot and let that slowly braise for about 1.5 hrs.

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After its done it’s thing, we have to personalize this a bit (pork should be tender by now).. turn up the heat and burn off the liquid until you have a gravy consistency you like (I like it somewhat thick) and taste for salt. Adjust accordingly as my appreciation for salt will be different than yours. After turning off the stove I like to go in with the chopped shado beni (or cilantro) and let the residual heat help release the flavors from that. Do remember to remove the whole scotch bonnet pepper before serving.

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TIP – Pork can be fatty… (remember I didn’t use a lean pork), so you’ll notice that some of the fat will rise to the surface of the pan. Spoon out and discard (not down your sink though – that can clog pipes).

If you want to make quicker work of this you can add it (after the initial 10 minutes of cooking the pork in the curry – before we added the water) to a pressure cooker for about 10-15 minutes (with 2 cups water) After it’s safe to open the pressure cooker, remove the lid and turn up the heat to thicken the gravy.

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* This can be frozen with great results. Simply thaw, heat and serve when you’re ready for another dose of curry pork..which also happens to be gluten free. Curry traditionalists may query the use of tomato and ketchup, but I assure you the acid will help balance the flavors nicely.

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Island style Curry Pork Recipe.
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9 Comments

  1. Ann
    July 3, 2016 / 9:32 am

    The first time I had Jamaican curry was in Miami. It was goat. My mother’s Japanese and the Japanese love their curries. This goat curry tasted like my mom’s lamb curry and I was excited. She would make lamb, beef, pork, chicken curries all the time and she made them spicy!

    I usually use Japanese curry powder which has a few more ingredients than the Jamaican but the end result is the same. I even recommended it to a Jamaican lady that if she couldn’t find Jamaican curry powder to try the Japanese one. She said she’d remember that in the future!

    I’m making pork curry right now. I’ve got 2 large pig tongues and 5 pig tails simmering away. I might grill the tails after to crunch up the fat. There’s plenty of meat in the tongues.

    Thanks for sharing this recipe. It looks delicious and very close to how I make mine. No two curries are alike. It’s all about individual preferences and intuition!

  2. Christina
    June 7, 2015 / 8:34 pm

    Chris,

    My curry comes out a darker than yours even though I added the same amount of Geera. What am I doing wrong?

  3. Teresa
    April 14, 2015 / 12:28 am

    Cookin it for the third time. Last time I made the green sauce and have frozen it in little pouches. Oh my goodness it makes the difference between ” good tasty ” to ” oh my , it’s amazing the mmmmm factor as we call it in our house. I urge others to make the green sauce, Chris makes it easy, even I can get the ingredients in hampshire England.
    I love your site. Everything I cook from it is fabulous.
    I am white, half german( so I cook) and blonde. Lol.
    If I can make these recipes so can you.
    Thank you chris for thebest caribbean site ever. X x

  4. malanda
    November 13, 2014 / 4:41 am

    dear chris la rosa
    jour dichs was fantastis
    i dit make it in mine cafe
    compliments

    thank very much la rosa
    al.malanda

  5. Russ
    November 4, 2014 / 9:20 pm

    Caribbean Green Seasoning

    there’s no recipe I clicked on and got YouTube I didn’t want that just a recipe. Other wise looking good

  6. Shantel
    October 29, 2014 / 10:28 pm

    I will certainly try this…yum

  7. Sabina
    October 9, 2014 / 11:21 am

    Chris you are awesome, I am gonna make this dish curry pork. I hope it comes out as great as yours. Love your #1 fan.

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