Curried Pork With Apples

When I published my linkfest of apple recipes last week, one recipe immediately jumped off the page: Curried Pork with Apples.

We're always on the lookout here at Casual Kitchen for recipes that combine regular ingredients in unusual and original ways (dishes like Groundnut Stew and our Mole Sauce are textbook examples). And I could tell that today's recipe, with a spicy curry sauce set off by slightly sweet and tender apples chunks, would have a lot of promise.

It didn't disappoint. And better still, this recipe is easy, quick (prep time is around 15 minutes and total cook time is well under an hour), and relatively inexpensive. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
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Curried Pork with Apples
(slightly modified from the original at About.com)

Ingredients:
1 pound lean pork, cut into 1-2 inch cubes (can use ground pork)
3 tablespoons olive oil

2 apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1/2 cup chopped onion

2 tablespoons flour
1 to 2 teaspoons curry powder, to taste
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (or one clove garlic, pressed or minced)

2 cups chicken broth or vegetable stock
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:
1) Brown the cubed pork on all sides in oil, on high heat, in a large non-stick pan, about 4-5 minutes in total.
2) Turn heat down to medium-high. Add apples and chopped onions to the pork. Saute for 4-5 minutes, until starting to brown lightly. Add flour and dry spices, stir well and continue sauteing for another 1-2 minutes.
3) Add remaining ingredients, cover and simmer for 35 minutes. Serve with rice.

Serves 4.
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Recipe notes:
1) We made some minor modifications to the spices; here's a link to the original recipe if you'd like to compare the before and after versions.

2) We ended up adding another 1-2 Tablespoons of flour to the sauce to get it to just the right thickness.

3) Make sure to stir the simmering sauce every 5-10 minutes or so, otherwise it may start to stick to the bottom of the pan.

4) The original recipe claims it serves 4-6, an optimistic claim if I ever saw one. Try "serves 4." But keep in mind that this dish is highly scalable and re-heatable and thus a great double-batch candidate.

5) Finally, a few thoughts on possible modifications that you can make to this dish. First, attention all non-pork eaters: this dish could very easily be made with chicken instead of pork. A vegetarian version could include 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup of chickpeas or perhaps 12 ounces of very firm tofu (although I'd add the tofu in at step #3 to prevent it from breaking up too much). You could also add nuts to this dish to add an interesting layer of textures to the sauce--I'd consider 1/4 cup of mild-tasting nuts like almonds or walnuts.

Related Posts:
Shrimp in Garlic Sauce (Camarones Ajillo)
Spicy Eggplant Ratatouille
What's the Most Heavily Used Tool in Our Kitchen? Our Rice Cooker.

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