Curried Pork Stew

This is a fantastic stew that makes in one pot, with all the ingredients simmering in harmony. I never measure my ingredients unless I am baking so these measurements are approximations that I remember using. If you want to change some things, feel free to do so! Also, it helps if you are aware of the rough proportions of spices you prefer to the quantity of meats/ vegetables etc.

For this recipe you will need:

• Roughly four to six pounds of stewing pork, cut into cubes or stew like pieces.
• Potatoes three to four large ones or 6 medium ones; cut into cubes like the meat (optional)
• Three to four large onions (pick your favourites: I always seem to favour the red onions)
• Garlic: think an entire head of one (read: lots!)
• Ginger, roughly a two inch piece of the root, skinned and chopped into medium sized chunks.
• Greek yogurt, about 600 ml
• Mustard/ Grape-seed/ Canola/ Vegetable oil: between 4 to 6 tbsp
• Black peppercorns whole about a tablespoon
• Cumin seeds: 2 tbsp
• Coriander seed powder: 2 tbsp
• Turmeric: 1 tbsp
• Chili powder: to taste
• Salt: a teaspoon full perhaps. I don't usually cook with salt but the onions are large and salt helps the veggies reduce by releasing their moisture.

You will most definitely want to own a mortar and pestle. I highly recommend it because it a simple yet multi-functional tool. You can make any number of pastes or powders with it. Not to mention that the flavours that are released because of the grinding action of the pestle against the mortar are incomparable to anything you can whip up with a food processor. However, I do understand that it is purely my opinion and you may disagree with me greatly. 

Process:

Take the biggest pot you have at your disposal. Coat the bottom of the pot with at least 3 tbsps of oil.

Chop the onions into halves and then into fine slices. Then toss them all into the pot. At this point I would add the potatoes but if you don't want potatoes, that is cool too.

Cut the pork and add into the pot. Take a frying pan and heat it up without using any medium (oil/ butter etc.). Roast the cumin seeds on the dry pan till your kitchen begins to smell like cumin. Take it off the heat and grind it into a fine powder in your mortar and pestle, adding it to the mix in the pot.

Take the peppercorns and grind them to a coarse powder using your mortar and pestle, then add the garlic to the peppercorns and crush them up together. Once the garlic is crushed adequately, add the ginger to the mortar and crush them all together to form a happy medley of garlicky goodness. Add this paste to the meat and onions in your pot. Add a heavy dose of yogurt, I put in about a cup or more. Follow it up with coriander seed powder, turmeric, chili powder and salt.

When all the ingredients are finally in the pot, stir them nicely to combine all of the agents together. After they are thoroughly mixed, put the pot to cook (covered with a lid) on medium heat for fifteen minutes first. Once the fifteen minutes are up, take a peek to see how the stew is doing (is it starting to boil?), turn down the heat to medium-low and give the pot a stir. Once the temperature is set to mid-low, leave the stew to stew for another forty minutes or so.

The stew will be ready by the time the forty minutes are up.
Serve with freshly made rice.