Spicy Pork Trotters Curry ~ Gwak Tan Gan ~ Cooking with Bamboo Shoot

Happy and blessed New Year, my dear readers! I had wanted to post a recipe on the first week itself, but somehow never got around to doing it -- story of my life on repeat mode, looks like! Anyway, i hope and pray that God will guide each one of you through this year. Well, first post for the year 2016, and today, India celebrate it's 67th year as a Republic Nation. So, on this occasion, this pork loving heart of mine choose to share my Pork Trotters recipe. Not all "porkholic" ventures into cooking or sampling this less famous part of porky-locky. But, I dare you to try, because i'm pretty sure that the gut will love it, want it, and will be calling out for more!

I was a skeptic for a long, long time about this unflattering part of the dearly beloved pork. But having overcome all my prejudice and inhibitions, i'm professing my love and paying my tribute to this newer love of mine. This is a a really simple, no fuss, stress free recipe. I hope this post will tempt you (hard enough) to try out pork trotters, if you've never ventured into this territory. 

Ingredients:

500 gms Pork Trotters

1 Onion, Chopped fine

1/3 Cup Fermented Bamboo shoot

1 Tbsp, Veg’ Oil

1 Tbsp, Ghee*

4-5 Small Potatoes, Cut in halves

1 - 2 - King Chili/Raja Mircha,  or 5-6 Dried Red Chilies, cut in halves

1 Whole pod of Garlic, crushed

1 Tbsp, Local, ground, red chilli powder

1.2 Tsp - Turmeric powder

500 ml - Water

Salt to taste

Fresh Coriander, chopped, for garnish

Method:

Pressure cook the trotters in 100 ml water with a sprinkle of salt for 4-5 whistles, or till it's tender and keep aside.

In a deep bottomed pot, heat the oil and fry the chopped onion. Let the onion sweat it out for sometime, then add the precooked trotters, bamboo shoot, chilies of your choice, salt, and stir till well combined.

After about cooking for a minute or so, add the chilli powder, turmeric powder, half of the crushed garlic, and then keep mixing and stirring till the garlic becomes fragrant.

Then, add the remaining water and continue to cook. As the curry comes to a rolling boil, reduce heat to medium flame and cook until the potato are soft soft. Mash up the potatoes, check the seasoning. Turn off the heat, add the remaining crushed garlic and the chopped coriander. Give the curry a good stirring, keep it covered and let it rest for a couple of minutes. Your spicy and aromatic trotters curry is ready!

Serve this dish with hot rice, chutney, some boiled vegetables or fresh salad. Make sure you wash it down with some organic tea.

P.S. I prefer to enjoy my trotters without much gravy -- if you feel you're missing the joy of having some spicy gravy burning your mouth, please go ahead and add that extra water. However, take care to add a little at a time, as you don't want a kill all that amazing flavor by adding too much water.

* You can just use 2 Tbsp vegetable oil, adding ghee is purely for the aroma and extra flavor.