Pandi Curry. With Love, From Coorg.

Pandi or Pork curry is synonymous with Coorg and Kodavas. When I tell people where I am from, they remark "oh Coorg? the pork curry, right!" That of course is, when people know where Coorg is and who kodavas are, which is 10%  of the time. Haha. But it's actually the truth. Kodavas love their pork. They can eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And even snack on it! No wedding in coorg is complete without pandi curry. But as ubiquitous as it sounds not everyone can make Pandi curry perfectly. And of course, there is no recipe for the "perfect one". It's what your family loves, whether they like it spicy or sourish. Whether they like is dry or with more gravy. Whether they like the fatty portion of pork or the lean meat. Well, according to me fatless or fat-free pandi curry is blasphemous. So if you are looking to lose weight and get that perfect model body. This one's not for you :)

We eat it with everything : rice, rice rotis (Akki-otti) paaput, kadambut (will elaborate on this later). And when we cook pork, we cook like an entire huge cauldron of it. OK, not cauldron, more like a big kadai/wok but I like to exaggerate.  This pandi curry we then eat for 2-3 days. And it gets tastier everyday. Every Day. In olden days, the pork or rather pig was not the reared-for-commercial-purposes pork, but wild boars found in the estates and forests of Coorg. Hunted down by Kodavas to then be cooked into the classic pandi curry. Now of course, no one hunts anymore, they go buy pork with shops and this is pig not the oh-so-awesomely-tasty wild boar. Trust me, pandi curry beats that image of the wild boar from Asterix.

In my grandmother's house they still have the earthen fire place in the kitchen. And even though we also have a gas burner, when it comes to pandi curry, it has to cook in the walle (वोहले). Because as with everything else, cooking on the fireplace just makes food tastier. I think that's where the philosophy of "cooking on a slow/low flame" comes from. You can't rush cooking. You need the spices to cook fully, the meat to soak the spices and release some of it's own taste to the gravy. Now of coure, the easier way to cook pandi curry (instead of letting it sit on a fireplace for 3 hours ) is to pressure cook the pork and then add it to the gravy. Also works, and actually very well. And it is difficult for our modern houses to have a fireplace to cook on. Just slightly difficult ! But if you spoke to my grandfather. He would rubbish these pressure cooker techniques and says "oh you city people don't know how to cook a tasty meal". Partly true. But he was very very protective about his cooking techniques and very critical of any method that didn't follow the traditional path. Whenever we went home for summer vacations, he would go to the local pork shop and buy loads for 3-4 days and come home beaming and announcing to everyone his big buy! haha. I miss him. So much. He loved his meat.  Ok, im dedicating this post to him then, and his perfect method of cooking Pandi Curry. Love you Thatha, this one's for you.


Ingredients.

1 Kg Pork, un-skinned and with fat (generous amounts of it!). A few bones will be perfect.
6-7 Onions, thinly sliced
12 cloves of Garlic, skinned.
3 inch ginger peeled.
3 tbsp chilly powder
2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp pepper powder, preferably freshly ground
Green Chillies: 7-8, slit long.
Oil (any will do, some families use sesame oil)
Kachumpuli Or Coorg vinegar (Check it out here, Copyright : Coorg.com)
Salt

Spices to Dry roast

1 tsp Peppercorns
1 tsp Coriander Seeds
1 tsp Jeera seeds (Cumin)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds

Dry Roast 

Heat a pan and dry roast the jeera and coriander seeds together. Until they are dark brown (important to get the rich dark pandi curry gravy). Then roast the peppercorns lightly and lastly roast the mustard seeds until they pop. I love it when they do!

Let them all cool and then finely ground all the spices together.

Make sure you do not burn the spices, that will leave a bitter taste to the curry.

Marinating the pork

Cut the pork into small square pieces, without geting rid of the fat!
Wash the pork thoroughly, 3-4 . Add some salt to the last wash and rinse all water.
Add salt ( approx 1 tsp), turmeric powder, pepper powder, chilly powder & lastly the ground spices. Leave aside for 30 mins, more is better.

Cooking in a pan/wok/cauldron

In a pan heat oil (less is good, since the pork has fat anyway)
Add onions and green chillies
Crush the garlic and ginger a bit, not into a paste but coarser. Add to the onions.
Fry until soft and translucent.
Then add the marinated pork
Mix in a little salt and cook for 10 mins.
The smell of the raw meat and spices should subside
Then add 2-3 cups of water, maybe add lesser than that initially, because the meat will release water, you can always add it later in case you feel it's too dry.
Cover and cook. Keep stirring gently in between. You will know when it's completely cooked, the meat will be a lot tender.
Now check if you need additional water. Also taste to check for salt.
Add kachumpuli. 1 tsp.
Simmer for a few minutes and shut the gas.

If you see a layer of fat floating, it's supposed to be like that ! :)

The deal with kachumpuli is you should always add a little less and add more later if you think the zing and tanginess hasn't kicked in. as they say, less is always better than more ;) The kachumpuli always goes in last and you dont cook the meat for more than 5 mins after you've added it.

Now, if you dont have kachumpuli. Please go get some and do NOT cook pandi curry until you have it! It changes the taste completely!

Always serve your pandi curry with sliced lime. My grandmother says, it helps cut the fat. Haha. I don't know if it does, but considering there is so much fat in this curry, you might as well try it. Plus, it only makes the taste better.

Enjoy your pandi curry. And send a prayer for my lovely grandfather.