It’s the start of Autumn, temperatures are heading south, and we’ve all but retired the salad spinner. I’m looking at hearty, warming recipes, and it seems like a good time to bring on the pork and beans!
In Coorg, pork dishes that combined pork (dried and smoked) with vegetables, bamboo shoot, or beans were typically prepared during the monsoon, This was when the stored and preserved abundance of Summer was put to good use.
My maternal grandmother may just have been a bit of a pork purist. As a rule, she didn’t care too much for pork commingling with vegetables in one pot! The only exception she made was when she cooked a particular dried pork dish into which she’d toss a few potatoes. I, on the other hand, love it cooked in combination with crisp greens, delicate squashes, starchy potatoes, and of course, with beans.
Since I didn’t have a recipe for pork with beans from my grandmother, I decided I should improvise some of my own. With this recipe, I was aiming for a dry, braised dish, to eat with a flatbread. If you’d prefer a sauce, use more water and skip the drying out step. Ideally, make this with onakk yerchi (dried smoked pork), but this version with pork jowl is excellent too. The bits of pork given a final roasting in the coconut and tamarind mixture are utterly delicious!
Braised avaré with pork
Pork and beans
- 1 1/2 cup dried avaré*, soaked until rehydrated, then parboiled
or
- 3 cups fresh avaré
- Add 1 tsp turmeric, chilli powder , salt and coriander powder to the parboiled or fresh beans
- 250gms diced pork belly or jowl (rub with 1/ 2 tsp each of turmeric , red chilli powder and salt and set aside)
- 5-6 small cloves of garlic with skin on, lightly crushed
- 2 medium onions or an equivalent amount of shallots, diced
- 1 1/2 tsp cumin
Grind together:
- 1/2 cup freshly grated coconut
- 2 fresh green chillis (or to taste)
- 1 large clove garlic
- 2-3 tsp tamarind extract
- 1 small bunch fresh coriander
In a wide, heavy based pan, heat the diced pork until the fat begins to render. Drop in the crushed garlic cloves.When they begin to colour, add the cumin, followed by the diced onions. Stir, and fry on medium heat until the onions soften and turn deep pink.
Add the parboiled (or fresh) beans along with the dry spices, and just enough hot water to cover the beans. (This is a dry braised style of dish, so you will need to keep the amount of liquid to the minimum possible.)
Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and allow it to simmer gently until the beans are cooked through.
Boil off as much extra liquid as possible, then add the ground coconut mixture. Raise the heat and begin drying out the coconut mixture.
Use a spatula to lift and scrape gently , to avoid breaking the beans, but allow the coconut to stick in places, so it develops a lovely roasted flavour.
The dish is done when the coconut is dry and begins to render a little fat of its own.
* Or use Christmas Lima beans.
This recipe actually works best with dried beans.The longer cooking time allows the flavours to really soak into the avaré!
(Sorry Grandma!)