Curried Pork Belly with Carrots, Celery and Cherry Tomatoes

Curried Pork Belly with Carrots, Celery and Cherry Tomatoes

After having deviated a bit with food reviews and competitions, I have returned to posting up what I am supposed to be doing. Featuring simple recipes for singletons who have odds and ends in their kitchen. I am an avid at-home-chef and that explains my ever extremely exploding larder that includes curry powder, chilli powder, paprika, turmeric powder, fresh chillies, frozen chillies, dried chillies and the like.

This time around, I had the basic ingredients for a curry. Plus root vegetables that were not all that fitting for a curry but nonetheless, suited the situation for now. So what did I do? Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

Curry paste:

4 heaping tbsp                      curry powder for meat

2 heaping tbsp                      chilli powder

4 fresh                                  red chillies - sliced and deseeded

10 whole                              shallots - peeled

4 cloves                               garlic - peeled

a Thumb sized                      ginger - peeled and sliced smaller

3 stalks                                 lemon grass - outer leaves removed, use only the bottom half

                                            salt

                                            fresh ground pepper

2 tbsp                                  water

1 packet                               pork belly - sliced

6                                          carrots - chopped into bite size pieces - diced preferably but not too small

6 stalks                                 celery - chopped into bite size pieces

a whole packet of                 Cherry Tomatoes - halved

2 soup bowls                        water

A can                                   Coconut Milk

                                            salt

                                            pepper (if needed)

Method:

1. First make the curry paste. Combine all ingredients into a blender. Blitz until it becomes a paste. 
2. Heat up a sizeable pot and add in vegetable oil. When oil is heated up, add in curry paste. Fry the paste until you see a layer of oil surfacing. 
3. Add in sliced pork belly and stir until meat is coated with the curry paste slowly sizzling with the heat.
4. Add in the water. If you do not have soup bowls, just add in enough water to cover half the pot you are using. Not to the brim! This would mean spillage!!!
5. Whilst meat is cooking, add in all the vegetables and let it brew. Make sure the curry is boiling before reducing the heat to let it simmer. Leave it simmering for about 30 minutes to reduce the water. Whilst simmering, make sure you stir off and on to avoid the curry from burning. (the timing is judged according to the size of pot you are using. So be sure to keep checking). 
6. When water is reduced, add in coconut milk. Stir only for a bit until coconut milk has combined with curry and is brought to boil. If coconut milk is cooked way too long, the oil breaks and you would end up with a water curry.
7. Remove from heat and serve! You can serve with rice or bread like what I did in the picture. 

Again, all the ingredients I had were at my disposal and there was no need for me to run out and buy any additional ingredients. I have yet to make a curry with parsnips though that may sound like a weird combination. If you don't have carrots or celery, you can alternatively add in potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin and even butternut squash!

I did not want to make a superbly hot curry, so I omitted dried chillies from the paste. You can add in about 4 dried chillies to make it even more spicy. Be sure to soak them in hot water first before blitzing it with the paste.

So now you have a perfectly good curry to eat on your own or even to serve your friends.

Unleashing her Malaysian side,

The Innovative Baker