One of my New Years Resolutions was to be better and more consistent with my blogging….well I’ll admit I’m off to a poor start BUT its not all my fault! School, snow, and a computer in the shop have left me busy and backlogged on recipes. I’ve been cooking a LOT so I’ve got plenty to share with you guys…I just have to get myself in gear. AND I plan to! Right now. With this post I promise to get back to posting regularly. Okay? Okay. ALSO I made an exciting discovery earlier this week…so if you haven’t done this already, do me a favor and google “young poor and hungry” and look at what the second result is. RIGHT??!? SO COOL. Also if you look at the photos my little header thing comes up before orphans and Mother Teresa. Probably shouldn’t gloat about that but still, that is awesome. So thank you friends, family, and strangers for reading my blog! I love you all. NOW back to burmese food. Pork curry is a classic and it is probably one of the easiest dishes out there. White people love it because its mild but still delicious. I love it because its a classic comforting dish that I’ve been eating for as long as I can remember. It all starts with a nice big hunk of pork shoulder…

Pork shoulders are great for curry because 1) they’re cheap and 2) they’re big hunks of meat that needs to be cooked low and slow for a long time. They’re well marbled so there is lots of lovely fat to cook down and flavor the curry with. We bought our pork shoulder at Costco and it was HUGE so we only used about half of it, about 6 pounds worth of meat. Make sure you strip away some of the outside fat and any weird cartilage/connective tissue still on the shoulder, don’t want the meat to be tough or have weird chewy bits. After you’ve cleaned it off a bit, cut it down into cubes. All this meat prep can be happening while your base is cooking down. Again, it is the classic Burmese base: onion, ginger, and garlic. Cook this down till it is at the “sizzling point” (the point I referred to in my post on ohn no khao swe).

Once your base is sizzling and translucent throw in some salt, pepper, turmeric, and a tiny bit of curry powder and let them cook for about 3 minutes. Then throw in your pork, give it a good stir, and walk away.

Okay so don’t really walk away. In the beginning you’re going to need to stick around to stir it so none of the meat burns or gets stuck to the pot. But after a while you’ll be able to leave it simmering, only returning to stir every ten to fifteen minutes maybe. At first the meat will just be cooking through BUT after a while it will begin to release moisture. This is why its important to have a shoulder or another fatty piece of meat. If you use something too lean it won’t let off enough moisture/fat and you won’t have any broth.

It’ll take about an hour or so to get really cooked down and delicious, but it all depends on your meat. You can tell when it’s getting close to done by looking at the meat. The grain in the pork should begin to show, meaning that it has become incredibly tender. Also it will have cooked down considerably.

So, yeah it might seem like there wasn’t much too this recipe. That’s cause its SUPER EASY! Just takes patience and a little attention. Usually when we have curry we just serve it out of the pot BUT we were entertaining, so it had to look nice.

Next time you’re going to be entertaining a large carnivorous crowd, give pork curry a shot! Its cheap, easy to make, and deliciousssss. Do it.

Pork Curry

• ~61/2 lb pork shoulder, cleaned and cubed
• 2 medium-large onion, diced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp gresh ginger, minced
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp curry powder

In a large heavy bottomed pot, heat oil over medium heat. Once oil is hot add in garlic, onion, and ginger and let cook till all moisture has cooked off. At this point the onions will be translucent and the only moisture that will be left will be the oil. Add in the salt, pepper, paprika, turmeric, and curry powder, stir and let cook for about 3 minutes. Add in pork and stir till thoroughly coated in spices. Let cook over medium heat for about an hour and a half, stirring constantly at first to make sure meat doesn’t stick or burn. Curry is done when meat is tender and breaks apart easily.