Pork and Chickpea Curry

This started out life as one of those little quicky videos on youtube. Zippy music and just hands making a curry. It looked very tasty and filling.. and I had a blizzard on the way. Just think of it as Indian Chili.

The video had a lamb shoulder, which I looked at several stores for ( finding a Halal grocer in the process, filed that one away ) In the end just got an on sale pork shoulder. Worked just fine - although the slight gaminess of lamb would work good with the sweetness of the final coconut milk. This is one that you should try - easy peasy , save the time. And really, once everything is tossed together there is no reason it could not go into a slow cooker or the oven.

It was from a British site so it is in grams.. but just wing it. I added much more meat that called for, doubled the spices and added carrots, because , I add carrots.

HERE is the link, maybe the little video is on here .. you can not link them to the blog on their own.

• olive oil or veg 
• 300 g diced lean lamb shoulder ( again, I used pork - and just use the whole shoulder, and up the spices as you think you need to.) 
• 1 tesapoon mustard seeds 
• ½ teaspoon ground turmeric 
• 1 teaspoon chilli powder 
• 1 tablespoon Madras curry powder ( do buy madras curry powder, find an indian or asian market where you live, spices are cheap as chips )
• 5 cm piece of ginger 
• 4 cloves of garlic 
• 3 onions ( the holy trinity of Indian cooking, if you are not at ease with cooking Indian, you might not want to wing it, I think I used 5 smallish... ) 
• 10 curry leaves - ( yes, you have to use these, again, Indian market )
• 2 x 400 g tins of chickpeas ( doubled ) 
• 1 organic vegetable stock cube 
• 1 x 400 g tin of plum tomatoes 
• ½ x 400 g tin of light coconut milk 
• 200 g baby spinach ( just use a whole bag )
• 1 bunch of fresh coriander

then just follow this pretty much to the letter, other than adding the chopped carrots when you add the beans

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large pan over a medium heat, add the lamb, spices and curry powder, then cook gently for 15 minutes, or until browned all over, stirring occasionally.
2. Meanwhile, peel and finely slice the ginger, garlic and onions. Add the sliced ingredients and curry leaves to the pan, then cook for a further 10 to 15 minutes, or until softened, stirring occasionally.
3. Tip in the chickpeas (and their juice), then crumble in the stock cube. Pour in the tomatoes and 1 tin’s worth of hot water.
4. Season lightly with sea salt and black pepper, then slowly bring to the boil, breaking up the tomatoes with the back of a spoon.
5. Cover with a lid, reduce the heat to low, and simmer gently for 1 hour 30 minutes, or until the lamb is tender and the sauce has thickened and reduced, occasionally stirring and scraping any bits from the bottom of the pan.
6. Add the coconut milk and spinach to the pan, stir well, then bring just back to the boil.
7. Have a taste and season to perfection, then tear the coriander leaves over the top. Delicious served with brown basmati rice.
8. Top with the cilantro leaves