Sunday, February 14, 2010

Sunday Cookbook Adventures: Braised Pork Curry with Roti

Fancy French food is great and all, but sometimes you want something that has a little more soul... or something. I don't know what the words I'm looking for are, but this dish somehow felt like "home"... For reasons related to the fact that I was going to have pork shoulder left from my Chorizo-making and the fact that flatbreads make me really really really happy, I decided to check out a recipe from Norman Van Aken's New World Kitchen for Pork Columbo in Roti as my "official" cookbook adventure this week.
I really had no idea what to expect when I decided to make this dish. I don't have a lot of experience making authentic Jamaican food, but the Curried Goat I used to get at a now-defunct Jamaican restaurant in Portland let me know that I love Jamaican curries, and the flavors involved in the ingredient list for this dish were all things I love... Plus, did I mention how I feel about flatbread? Honestly, I saw braised pork, spices, and flatbread on the page and immediately moved the recipe to the top of my queue without any further thought into what it might taste like. The dish starts off marinating the pork for 30 minutes in lime juice, salt, and pepper. I prepped my mise while the pork marinated...
After searing the pork (in batches) in a dutch oven, the cooking liquid is left in the pot with the addition of a little butter, then in go the onions, ginger, scallions, garlic, and Scotch bonnet chili. Things smelled a lot like heaven at this moment.
From that very familiar flavor profile, things got interesting with the addition of curry powder, brown sugar, parsley, chives, and thyme. (The thyme in a curry strikes me as a very Jamaican touch... I didn't actually realize this dish was in the "Jamaica" section of the book when I started cooking it, but as soon as I started chopping the thyme I was like "Hmm... I wonder if this is a Jamaican dish?")
The pork is added back to the pan and tossed to coat in the yumminess now residing there.
The recipe at this point calls for the addition of a cup and a half of chicken stock. I didn't have any homemade stock on hand, and didn't want to open a quart box just to use a cup and a half... plus, Michael Ruhlman told me to just use water, anyway... so I used water. Honestly, I'm not sure how much boxed chicken stock is really going to bring to the party when combined with these beautiful strong flavors. Ruhlman makes an excellent point (as usual), and water made a lot more sense to me in this case. (If you're counting on boxed chicken stock to deliver an important flavor component to your dish, your dish had some serious problems to begin with...)
This simmers for about 15 minutes, and then come the veggies: peeled red potatoes, carrots, and acorn squash (substituted, as directed, for the calabaza that was nowhere to be found at Russo's this week).
The dish is brought back to a simmer and placed in a moderate oven for 2 or 3 hours, until the pork is falling-apart tender... I was a seriously happy camper when I saw this waiting for me under my dutch oven's lid:
While the Pork Columbo was in the oven, I prepared what is one of the world's easiest flatbreads. You combine some flour, salt, baking soda, and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer, then drizzle in cold water...
Tightly wrap and refrigerate for an hour...
Then divide into 20 balls and roll each ball out into a thin-ish disc, which is cooked 60-75 seconds per side in a skillet over moderately high heat...
The curry goes into a bowl, the flatbread goes onto the plate... and happiness follows...
This was SO good. I don't feel like I have the words to do it justice. The flatbread is buttery and soft, and the perfect complement to the hearty, spicy, comforting braised pork... It's one of those meals that I sat down to with no idea what to expect, and from the first bite was like "Wow. This is exactly what I've been craving my entire life..." Maybe I'm over-stating things since it still has me in its thrall... but I can't describe it any less enthusiastically at this point. I will definitely be exploring further into New World Kitchen based on the success of this dish. It's another one of those books that has sat on my shelf for years without ever being used, and that now I can't wait to use again... and again and again...

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