Pork ar Tomato r Acchar

Pickle making is my passion, I love to develop new pickle recipes,  specially when it comes to non veg pickles adding up with vegetables...This is a Bengali style meat and tomato pickle. You can use any meat, here I have used pork. 

For the Masala

Ingredients 

1 tsp Cumin seeds

1 tsp Coriander seeds 

1 tbsp Mustard seeds

1/4 tsp Fenugreek seeds

25 Garlic Cloves 

2 to 3 small piece of Ginger 

10 to 15 Green Chillies depending upon the spiciness you require

Method 

Take a grinder, add the dry ingredients and coarsely grind into a powder. Keep it aside. 

Now grind the ginger, garlic and green chillies into a coarse paste without adding any water, keep it aside. 

Pork and Tomato Acchar 

Ingredients 

250 grams Pork meat + 125 pork fat cut into small pieces 

375 grams Ripe Tomato chopped into small cubes 

Dry Masala powder 

Wet Masala

1 tsp Turmeric powder 

1 tbsp Kashmiri Red Chilli powder 

Salt to taste 

1 1/2 tsp Sugar 

1/2 tsp Panch Phoran 

1/2 cup Vinegar 

1/4 cup + 1/4 cup Mustard oil

Method 

Take a strainer, add the pork pieces along with the pork fat in the strainer, sprinkle and apply salt on the pork, keep it aside for an hour or two for draining out the extra water. Pour 1/4 cup mustard oil in a heavy bottom pan. Let it heat up, add the pork pieces and fry the pork until golden in colour on a low medium flame. Remove and keep it aside. In the same pan, add the panch phoran, sauté for few seconds. Add the wet paste. Add the remaining mustard oil. Sauté and cook the paste on a low flame until the oil separates from the masala. Now add the tomato pieces. Sauté and cook the tomatoes until the tomatoes have become pulpy and the oil has separated from the tomatoes. Add the pork, continue to cook for 10 minutes. Add the dry masala, salt, sugar, turmeric powder and chilli powder. Continue to cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. Switch off the flame and add 1/4 cup of vinegar, stir and then add the remaining vinegar and stir, let the pickle cool down completely. Store the pickle in a dry glass container. This pickle can be preserved for 2 to 3 months in the refrigerator. 

Sticky Pork Belly

This piece of pork belly had been in my freezer for some time now. Even though I love pork, but I  don't cook it frequently in my house. I wanted to make crispy pork belly, but I found that the recipe was a bit lengthy, since my husband wanted to have fried rice, I thought this easy recipe was ideal to go with the fried rice. 

Pork belly is very popular and it’s a delicacy in many parts of the world. 

Here I have cooked Chinese style Sticky Pork Belly using star anise.  It’s very easy to make and extremely delicious. I love the sweet taste in it and the flavour of star anise. 

I followed kitchen Sanctuary's recipe... But I have made few changes in the recipe. 

For the Sticky Sauce

Ingredients 

2 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce 

2 tbsp Rice Wine (Optional) 

1 tsp Garlic minced 

1/2 tsp Ginger minced

1 tbsp Green Chilli minced 

Salt to taste

2 tbsp Brown Sugar

1 tbsp Honey 

2 tbsp Oil

Method 

Mix all the above ingredients together in a bowl and keep it aside. 

To make the Sticky Pork Belly

Ingredients 

500 grams Pork Belly cut into pieces 

1 Star Anise

4 to 5 sliced Ginger

4 to 5 whole Garlic crushed

1 stem of Spring Onion cut into 2 inch’s and then cut into thin slices lengthwise 

Salt to taste 

1 tbsp Brown Sugar

1 cup Vegetable stock or Chicken stock

Sticky Sauce

2 tbsp Oil 

Method 

Take a wok and add  oil, add the Pork pieces and stir it on high flame for a minute. Add the brown sugar and salt. Stir it for another minute. Remove the Pork pieces. In the same wok add the stock, ginger, garlic and star anise, let the stock come to a boil. Add the Pork Belly pieces. Cover and let it slow cook till the liquid has evaporated completely. Continue to stir the Pork belly for a minute. Add the sticky sauce, stir and cook it till the sauce has coated well on the Pork pieces. Garnish with spring onions and few red chilli slices. Serve with fried rice or enjoy as a starter.