Sharmila on Food

Pigs cheek vindaloo

Vindaloo is one of those words that I can’t help but cringe at slightly, visions of braying idiots asking for the hottest thing on the menu springing to mind.  This is, of course, not what vindaloo is all about, but it is a shame that this is what it has come to stand for in the UK.  Vindaloo is a product of the Portugese colonisation of Goa.  This meeting of cultures resulted in a form of curry that sings with the tang of vinegar, a punchy chilli heat, and the use of pork (something generally very rare within India).  It’s incredibly tasty and, whilst definitely spicy, this is not a one-dimensional dish designed just to blow your head off.

My slight obsession with the Forgotten Cuts section at the butcher in Waitrose has resulted in me acquiring quite a lot of pigs cheeks (£1.50 for eight, fact fans).  This is one of those cuts that benefits from long, gentle cooking.  If you do this though, you’re rewarded with unctuous, rich and flavourful meat.  I had a feeling that these would work well in a slow cooked vindaloo, and I was happy to find I was right.  This is one of those dishes that I was really happy with, and I’m glad that I’ve got a ton of leftovers for the week - everyone knows curry always tastes better after a day.

I adapted a Madhur Jaffrey recipe for duck vindaloo from Madhur Jaffrey’s Ultimate Curry Bible.  This is one of those cookbooks that I have turned to time and again over the past six years.  The state of it would be testament to that.  For anyone interested in Indian flavours and how they have evolved across the world, this is the book to get.

This dish is obviously not confined to using pigs cheeks.  Any cut of pork that you can slow cook would work wonderfully - shoulder springs to mind.  I have to say though, that it’s worth giving this a go if you do get hold of some pigs cheeks.  These yield a great result in the same way that older, tougher, fattier lamb or mutton works wonder in curries too.

Pigs cheek vindaloo - recipe adapted from Madhur Jaffrey’s Curry Bible.

Serves about 4-5 people

8 pigs cheeks, trimmed of any excess fat

2 medium onions or equivalent shallots, thin sliced (I used shallots as this is what I had to hand)

10 garlic cloves, pounded to a paste (I used my blender for these instead)

2 tbsp ginger, grated (these went in the blender too - I’m quite lazy)

150ml white wine vinegar

15 curry leaves

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/4 fenugreek seeds

1tbsp paprika

1 tbsp ground coriander

1 tbsp ground cumin

1tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 1/2 tsp of garam masala (if you can make your own garam masala for this, you will get a much better result than using bought ground powder - recipe is below)

1 tbsp sugar

2 1/2 tsp salt

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

groundnut or vegetable oil

1. combine the paprika, garam masala, turmeric, cayenne pepper, coriander and cumin in a small bowl and set aside.

2. Get a large, wide pan and heat up a few tbsp of oil on a high heat.  When the oil is hot, brown the pork for a few minutes on each side.  Take out of the pan and set aside.

3. In the same pan, heat the oil again, and when hot, add the mustard and fenugreek seeds.  As soon as the mustard seeds start to pop, add the onions and curry leaves.

4. Fry the onions until they are browned around the edges.  Add the garlic and ginger and fry for a minute.

5.  Add the small bowl of spices and stir and fry for 30 secs.  The mixture will probably stick to the pan.  Don’t worry too much, but stir frequently to ensure this doesn’t burn.

6. Add the tomatoes and cook for 3-4 minutes, scraping at the bottom of the pan as you stir.  When the tomatoes are soft, return the pork to the pan, add the vinegar, sugar, salt and 475ml of water.  Bring to the boil, then turn the heat to low and simmer the vindaloo with a lid on the pan.  I simmered the pigs cheeks at this stage for 90mins.  Cuts such as shoulder may take more like 60 mins.

7. After the pork has simmered for it’s cooking time, uncover the pan, turn up the heat in order to reduce and thicken the sauce slightly.

Serve with rice (the sauce is quite thin so you want lots of lovely rice to mop it up). 

As pigs cheeks are relatively fatty, this curry can get quite oily.  If you have time to make this the day before, you can always then cool it down and remove the oil that settles on top.   Even though I didn’t do this, I still managed to skim a lot of oil off the top whilst it was simmering.

Garam masala - from Madhur Jaffrey’s Ultimate Curry Bible

1tbsp cardamom seeds

1tsp black peppercorns

1tsp whole cloves

1tsp black cumin seeds (these are different from typical cumin seeds - they are blacker, and thinner and will be labelled as black cumin)

1/3 of a nutmeg

medium size stick of cinnamon, broken into pieces

Grind all of the spices together until you have as fine a powder as possible.  I use a coffee grinder to do this.  Store in an airtight container.