A good curry recipe is to boiled rice, what a lead guitar is to a rock band. One cannot exist without the other. And without a good curry, boiled rice is just that. Bland and boring. Which is why a good meat curry is always a good thing to have in your arsenal. I’m not the biggest fan of pork by the way. I generally prefer a good chicken curry or beef curry or lamb curry (mutton curry) or a fish curry. Which is why, I prepare my pork dishes with extra flavour, texture, and spice that truly elevate the dish in every imaginable way. Like this pork carnitas recipe, which is one of my favourite ways ever to eat pork! Same with this easy pork ramen, slow braised pork roast, habanero and peach BBQ pork ribs!, and devilled pork – a very Sri Lankan dish, the pork version of this spicy devilled beef recipe.
Spicy Sri Lankan Black Pork Curry
The name “black pork” comes from the colour of the final product, as you may have guessed. And that colour comes from the dark roasted curry powder that’s used to prepare this dish which is mixed with tamarind paste and black pepper. I did add some cayenne pepper purely for Mr K’s benefit, because his threshold for heat is the same as that of a fire breathing dragon. But feel free to leave out the cayenne pepper for less heat. As for the photos of the black pork in this post, I’m really not sure they do this dish any justice. There are some foods/dishes where photos just don’t convey how incredibly flavourful they are, no matter how much you twist and turn your body to get that perfect shot or perfect angle. This was one of them. So just take my word for it. If you like a good meat curry, this will be a staple in your house. Tamarind and another type of “fruit” called goraka are regularly used in Asian cooking. They both add distinct sour notes to curries and even a hint of sweet/fruity taste too. Tamarind is more popular as it’s used in numerous dishes and there are a few different types of tamarind too. There’s one type called velvet tamarind, which I particularly like and is delicious. It’s something I used to snack on quite a lot when I was little, and I remember collecting the shell of this fruit because they had a really fun velvety skin (hence the name), and for a time I thought they used those shells to make velvet. True story. And the best part about this spice mix is that you can use it for any type of meat curry – chicken, beef, lamb, whatever. See a full list of my curry recipes here to see all the meat and vegetarian curries that I’ve made using this incredibly versatile roasted curry powder. You can get Sri Lankan roasted curry powder from Sri Lankan or Indian Specialty stores, or make it yourself with my easy Sri Lankan roasted curry powder recipe. The reason why I love this curry so much is the balance of flavours. If you’d like to increase that beautiful peppery heat (and the colour), just add a little more black pepper. The addition of tamarind paste give this curry a delicious sour note that complements the heat really well. And since it’s a meat curry, you can pair it with a number of side dishes like salads, vegetable curries, lentil curry etc. Our favourite way to eat this however is with a side of coconut sambol (a traditional Sri Lankan dish) or green pepper coconut sambol (pictured below). This is a curry we love eating no matter what protein we choose to make it with. Pork seems to work best though, because of the texture and the flavour of the meat. And it’s one of Mr K’s ultimate comfort foods. If you liked this recipe don’t forget to subscribe for new (and free) recipes and updates by entering your email address below (and get all these recipes delivered straight to your inbox), so you don’t miss out on a thing. You can find me on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, PINTEREST and GOOGLE-PLUS too. I share pictures of recipes to come on the blog plus other awesome recipes I find out there that I want to try. So I hope you do stop by and say hi! 🙂
