An Invitation to Indian Cooking - Madhur Jaffrey [35]
Now return the pork chops to the skillet and add 1 cup warm water and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, cover, lower heat, and allow to cook very gently for ½ hour. Turn the chops over a few times as they cook.
Meanwhile, press the tamarind juice and pulp through a strainer into a nonmetallic bowl. Discard tamarind fibers, skins, seeds, etc.
When the pork chops have cooked for 30 minutes, add 2 tablespoons tamarind juice, 1 teaspoon sugar, and ½ teaspoon salt. Mix well, turning the chops. Cover and keep cooking slowly another 15 to 20 minutes. By this time most of the liquid will have been absorbed, leaving just the fat behind.
To serve: In India, the fat and the spices would be served with the meat. Here, in America, I suggest you lift the chops from the pot with a slotted spoon, leaving all the oil and spices behind. Place on a warm platter and serve with Rice with Peas or any other vegetable rice dish. You could also serve it with Sookhe Aloo (“Dry” Potatoes) instead. For a vegetable, the Cabbage with Onions would be a good idea. If you are not up to cooking a complicated vegetable dish (as I am sometimes not), serve just a salad, or sliced tomatoes.
Pork chops cooked with cabbage
SERVES 4
This is another recipe for pork chops which is relatively simple and quite delicious. The chops and cabbage are cooked separately first and then combined to cook together for the last 10 minutes. At home we considered this a “Western” dish and ate it with mashed or boiled potatoes. The combination of spices used is actually very Indian, even though the dish does lend itself to being served in a Western style.
1 medium-sized cabbage (2½ pounds orso)
1 medium-sized onion
8 pork chops (loin or rib)
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 bay leaves
2 cinnamon sticks, each 2½ inches long
8 cardamom pods
10 whole cloves
12 whole black peppercorns
2 dried hot red peppers (optional)
1½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon whole cumin seeds
3 heaping tablespoons plain yogurt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Remove outer leaves of cabbage. Wash, quarter, remove core, and shred cabbage into long, fine slices.
Peel onion, cut into half lengthwise, and slice into thin half-rings.
Wipe the pork chops dry and trim away all the fat except about ⅛ inch along the sides.
Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a 10–12-inch heavy-bottomed pot over a medium-high flame. When oil is hot, put in 4 chops at a time and brown them well on both sides. This will take 3 to 4 minutes on each side. When all the chops have been browned, remove them to a plate or bowl.
In the same skillet, over medium-high heat, fry the bay leaves, cinnamon, cardamom pods, cloves, peppercorns, and whole red peppers for about a minute or until red peppers darken. Now add 1 cup water, the pork chops, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon sugar. Bring to a boil, cover, turn down flame to very low, and simmer gently for about 35 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the remaining 3 tablespoons of oil in a large wide pot over medium-high heat. When hot, put in the cumin seed. When the cumin seed darkens—in about 20 seconds—add the sliced onion and fry for about 5 minutes, stirring all the time. Turn the heat to medium and add the cabbage. Fry, stirring for a minute. Cover, lower flame, and allow cabbage to steam in its own liquid for 5 minutes.
Uncover and raise flame again to medium. Add ½ teaspoon salt. Now fry, stirring, for about 20 minutes until the cabbage is slightly browned. Turn off flame.
Put the yogurt in a cup and add enough cold water to make ½ cup. Mix well.
When the pork chops have cooked about 35 minutes, uncover and add the cabbage, the yogurt mixture, and the lemon juice. Mix well, cover, and simmer another 10 minutes.
To serve: Arrange pork chops and cabbage on a warm platter and serve with boiled or mashed potatoes. Some of my friends like to serve a spiced apple ring or other fruit relish with this dish.
Pork chops à la Jaffrey
SERVES 2
I apologize for this name. The dish is really