Chile-Smothered Pork with Vinegar

[conuly]

I took this from 660 Curries.

Ingredients

1/2 cup cider vinegar or malt vinegar
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
8 slices fresh ginger - 2 inches long, 1 inch wide, 1/8 inch thick
8 medium cloves garlic
8 dried red Thai or cayenne chiles, stems removed
1 cinnamon stick
1 pound boneless pork loin chops cut into 1 inch cubes
1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro

Instructions

Pour the vinegar into a blender. Add the cumin, ginger, garlic, chiles, cinnamon. PUree to form a pulpy, gritty paste.

Place pork in a bowl, pour paste over it. Sprinkle with salt and turmeric, stir together. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or as long as overnight.

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork and marinade. Cook, uncovered, until it is browned - about 10 minutes. (It says the meat will stew to start but then brown.)

Pour in 1/2 cup of water, deglaze skillet. Reduce heat, cover, simmer until pork is tender, about 15 minutes.

Stir in cilantro and serve.

I carefully cut the amount of chiles in half, and it was still extremely spicy. I like spicy foods more than the rest of the family. I should've known better than to put 4 chiles in anything.

The recipe notes that this is often made with beef, mutton, or seafood instead of pork.

I used a stick of Vietnamese cinnamon instead of the usual cassia cinnamon that you can more easily find. I am not certain that cassia cinnamon would've pureed at all - it takes forever even to grind in a spice grinder.

I served this with rice and with sauteed cauliflower with mustard seeds.

Comments

[pensnest]

That looks delicious, and reminds me of cooking a Pork Vindaloo back when I was in college and used to feed a random selection of my student friends on Sundays. Strong men wept.

I must admit, though, I'd be hesitant about pulverising an entire cinnamon stick. Is that what made the paste 'gritty'?

[conuly]

That and the cumin.

[colls]

That does sound very spicy - but so flavorful! Yum

[antisoppist]

I made a BBC GoodFood pork vindaloo on Saturday thinking it was less strong than the one we used to make in the curry book that the ex kept, which was inedible for me. Only I didn't have 6 dried chillies and used 3 fresh ones and even so it was pushing it for me and the 16 year-old and the 13 year-old ate one sliver of pork and lots of naan bread.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/pork-vindaloo

[conuly]

Oooh, synchronicity!

But seriously, so spicy, right?

[antisoppist]

So spicy! I had the remains in pitta bread for lunch yesterday. I don't know why I always think time will make it less spicy! Maybe next time just one chilli. The flavour was great but overshadowed by the sheer hotness.

I must write up the naan bread recipe though because that was a new one from an existing cookbook and was excellent.

[valoise]

This does sound good!