Karnataka-style slow cooker pork curry

This recipe is inspired by this recipe. I wanted a genuine, spicy indian pork curry that I could make in the slow cooker. This recipe worked really well! I've made it twice now, once with picnic bog and once with Karre and the karre worked much better. These are both swedish cuts of pork. If you're in the states, boston butt or any pork shoulder cut with adequate fat that works in the slow cooker should work. My variation uses only one pan for the initial step.

Ingredients:

Spice Blend:

• 3 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 3 teaspoons coriander seeds (or two teaspoons coriander powder)
• 6 cloves
• 2" cinnamon stick
• 2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 20 black peppercorns
• 2tsp brown mustard seeds

Curry: 

• 2" peeled and roughly chopped root ginger
• 10 garlic cloves
• 2 tomatoes, quartered
• cooking oil
• 1 tsp brown mustard seeds
• 2 sprigs curry leaves
• 4 onions, finely chopped
• 3 green chillies, stalks removed, pierced with a knife
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 2 dried red chillis
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon kashmiri chilli powder, (optional)
• 1-1.5kg pork shoulder, cut into cubes, with some fat
• 0.5 cup vinegar (I've used both apple cider and white, no real preference)
• 1 can coconut milk

Method:

1. Cut the pork into large chunks and salt and pepper the meat.
2. Fry the pork chunks for about 6-7 minutes on each side on medium heat
3. Turn off the heat. In the remaining hot oil, add all the spices under spice blend. After about 5 minutes, scrape the spices into the spice blender and blend. Add vinegar to make the spice blend liquid.
4. Turn the heat back on. Add mustard seeds to the hot oil and when it sputters, add dried red chillis and then the curry leaves. Fry for a few minutes
5. Add the onions and fry until well browned. 
6. Now add in the kashmiri red chilli powder and fry for a minute or two and then add in the spice mix. 
7. In the spice blender throw in the ginger, tomatoes, garlic and red chillis and blend
8. Toss the blended mix into the curry as well
9. Fry this on medium-high heat until the mix begins to thicken and release oil
10. Add this masala and the pork pieces to the slow cooker 
11. Cook on high for 3-4 hours. Test at 2 hours for doneness. 
12. When done, add the can of coconut milk and let the curry cook in the slow cooker without a lid for about 30 minutes.

Slow cooked Beef Panang curry a la Madam Mam's

This started out as an attempt to recreate Madam Mam's slow cooked beef panang. It is the best thing ever and I've always wanted to try to replicate it. This was a pretty good attempt and it was seriously delicious. We ate it with quinoa, but it will definitely be awesome with white rice too. I used beef chuck for this attempt, but I suspect brisket would actually be a better cut for it. The last three ingredients are added to taste. The basil, especially, develops over time, so it will get stronger in the left overs, keep that in mind when you are adding the leaves.
This dish was a complete experiment and I'm pretty sure it would actually be ok even with just throwing everything into the slow cooker together, but I tried to replicate the beginning of thai curries in pots and used the slow cooker for the long low heat step.

Ingredients

beef chuck, sliced into thick slices
Panang curry paste (from the store, Mae ploy brand) (~3 Tbsp)
two onions, finely chopped
can of coconut milk
brown sugar
thai basil, fresh
fish sauce/salt

Method

1) Heat about a tablespoon of oil and fry a couple of table spoons of the panang curry paste in the hot oil (I had about a kilo of beef) for about two minutes (The smell of the paste will change from raw and thats when it is ready)
2) Add half the can of coconut milk to the paste and cook for a few minutes
3) Add the chopped onions to the sauce for a few minutes
4) Add the sliced beef in and coat in the sauce and add to the slow cooker and cook on high for 6 hours
5) After 5 hours add the rest of the coconut milk, fish sauce/salt, brown sugar, lime juice and sliced basil leaves till it tastes right.
6) After a little more bubbling we ate it served over rice. It was delicious.

Masala jheenga (Goan prawn curry) recipe

We got this recipe from here. It got rave reviews from the non-indians, but I rather liked it too. I think its a keeper! I thought there was too much masala, I think I will make a little less next time. Also, we don't get "Bart's" tamarind here, so I just used the usual thai tamarind paste and I needed a lot more than 1tbsp of that.

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 2 tsp ground paprika
• 3 green chillies, deseeded and cut into strips
• 100ml coconut milk
• 400g large fresh prawns, peeled but with tail shells on and deveined
• 1 tbsp tamarind pulp (try Bart’s)
• For the curry paste
• 100g desiccated coconut
• 5 whole dried red chillies
• 4 tsp coriander seeds
• 21/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 2cm piece of fresh ginger, grated
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp whole black peppercorns

Method

1. Place all the ingredients for the curry paste into a food processor and blend well, adding enough water to make a thick paste.
2. Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan over a medium heat and gently cook the onions until golden. Add the curry paste and paprika and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Stir in the green chillies and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add enough water to thin the mixture to a sauce consistency. Add the coconut milk and prawns and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the tamarind pulp, then season and cook for a further 2 minutes. Transfer to bowls and serve with steamed basmati rice and pappadums.

Tom Kha Pladuk

There are two staple soups in Thai cuisine: tom yam is a hot spicy clear soup with elements of sweet and sour flavors added. Tom kha is a milder soup with coconut milk and galangal (kha) dominating rather than the fiery prik (chili) of the tom yam. Because it is milder tom khas are often made with chicken or pork, but most common in Thailand are varieties using seafood (especially shrimp, squid, or fish such as red snapper or catfish) or vegetables (especially medleys of mushrooms, tom kha hed). The catfish can be "crisped" by quickly, and briefly, deep frying it in very hot oil, but this variation is based on simply poaching the fish in the soup.

In Thailand the fish is cleaned and then poached whole (with the head), then removed from the soup and cut into bite sized pieces which are returned to the soup for serving. The method here is a little simpler, in that it doesn't involve handling the hot fish.

Thais eat the galangal, which is cut into thin matchstick pieces. However it has been noticed that many Americans prefer to discard the galangal and so it may be wiser to leave the galangal in thin slices. Similarly the lemongrass is eaten, but you may prefer to cut it into 2" lengths, and crush them with a mallet. These may then be discarded by the diner.

Ingredients

• 1 catfish (about half a pound prepared weight)
• 2 cups fish stock
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon galangal, julienned
• 1 tablespoon lemongrass, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon coriander/cilantro leaves
• 1 tablespoon Thai chile peppers, thinly sliced
• 4 tablespoons fish sauce
• 4 tablespoons lime juice

Method

Bring the stock to a simmer. Add the galangal, lemongrass, coriander, chilis, fish sauce and lime juice, and bring back to the simmer. Clean the fish and cut it into 1" steaks, then divide them, removing the bones. Add the fish to the soup, and the coconut milk and bring back to a very gentle simmer, and poach the fish for 3-4 minutes (until just cooked).