Gorom Moshla Pork - Pork with Bengali Garam Masala

It's no secret that I love pork and it's no secret that I like to wing it when I'm cooking. It's how I've cooked all my life. Over the last couple of years however, I have been studying Bengali cuisine in an attempt to learn the basics, cook some of the well known and not so well known dishes, and of course connect to my very Bengali roots. It is this study that taught me what goes into a Bengali garam masala (and it's not a lot).

I was in the mood to cook a pork curry but I didn't have much in the fridge to pair with it, nothing really appealed. As I stared at the various bottles and jars in the kitchen cupboard I pulled out the whole garam masalas and I saw my jar of home made Bengali garam masala. And I decided to make the garam masala the focus of my curry.

So here's what I did -

Gorom Mosha Pork 

500 gms boneless pork with around 30% fat
2 large onions, finely sliced
2-3 potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 tbsp fresh ginger-garlic paste, preferably roughly bashed in your mortar and pestle
salt
turmeric
mild chilli powder (for colour)
whole garam masalas - Indian bay leaf, cloves, cardamom, cassia bark
1 tbsp Bengali garam masala powder*
2 tbsp vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)
mustard oil
sugar

Wash the pork, drain, and marinate with salt and the ginger garlic paste.
Heat oil in a pressure cooker and fry the potatoes till they turn a little brown and mildly crisp. Remove and set aside.
In the same oil, add a little more if needed, chuck in the whole spices and fry for a minute.
Add the sliced onions and fry slowly till they start going a little brown. Add a teaspoon of sugar to help the onions along.
Add the marinated pork and the vinegar and saute slowly for 15-20 minutes. Do this with patience till the moisture is dried out.
Now add the turmeric and chilli powders and the Bengali garam masala powder. Stir well and cook for another 5 minutes or so till the spices lose their rawness.
Add the fried potatoes back to the pot, add enough water, and then shut the pressure cooker and let the curry cook. Once it whistles reduce the heat and cook on simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Switch off and let the cooker cool on its own.
Open, taste and adjust the salt if required and serve with plain hot rice.


* Bengali garam masala that I like  - broil green cardamom, cloves and cinnamon separately on a tava over gentle heat. Combine and grind to a powder either in a mortar and pestle or in an electric spice grinder. Store in an air-tight bottle.
The ratios for the three spices I use - 3 parts cardamom, 1 part cloves, 1 part cinnamon. Measure by weight.