Burmese Pork Curry
Photo: magical-world, CC BY-SA 2.0
Burmese pork curry is a light, aromatic dish built on a hand-pounded paste of dried chilli, ginger, lemongrass and galangal. The paste is fried with the pork until the fat renders, which gives the sauce its depth without any coconut milk. Tamarind, fish sauce and a little sugar are added at the end, so the finished curry tastes sour, salty and gently sweet, with crisp green beans alongside.
Instructions
Soak the dried chillis in warm water for 20 minutes so they soften.
Pound the ginger, softened chillis, lemongrass and galangal in a mortar and pestle until you have a coarse paste. Add the shrimp paste and the fine brown sugar and keep grinding until the paste is dark and grainy.
Put the pork in a wok or large frying pan over medium heat. Stir in the curry paste until every piece of meat is well coated.
Lower the heat and cook, stirring now and then, until the pork changes colour, gives up some of its fat and the paste smells fragrant. Trim some fat from the pork beforehand if you like, but leave enough to render into the sauce.
Stir in the turmeric, water and dark soy sauce. Simmer gently, uncovered, for 40 minutes, until the pork is tender.
While the curry simmers, or once it is nearly done, steam the green beans separately for about 10 minutes.
Stir the brown sugar, tamarind, garlic, shallots and fish sauce into the pork. Keep stirring until the sugar and tamarind have dissolved into the sauce.
Serve straight away, topped with the steamed beans and fresh red chillis. If you have no galangal, use extra root ginger in its place.
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