Curry Lab

Lately I've been trying to combine two of my most pleasurable hobbies: braising pork and cooking Indian food.

I don't think I've ever eaten pork in an Indian restaurant, and my Indian cookbooks contain only a few pork-centered recipes. Apparently it's not easy to come by a pig in India, and if you do, apparently there are other more important things to do with one besides eat it. But as much as I love the traditional lamb, it's more expensive than pork -- and pork's incredible melting fat does thrilling things to a curry.

For this one I decided to use whole country ribs rather than cut the meat into chunks and take it off the bone. First I browned the ribs, and then I braised them on the stove. I basically did Italian-style pork in an Indian sauce. Oh, the results! The thick curry, made with onion, garlic, ginger, tomato, coconut milk and spices, was enriched by the pork fat, and the flavors, helped along by the presence of bones, were deep after about an hour on the stove.

As a corner-cutting naan substitute, we heated some pocketless pitas and brushed them with butter. We needed as many things as we could find to soak up that sauce.