Sri Lankan Black Pork Curry

Black pork curry is the most famous Sri Lankan pork dish that everyone loves. The fatty pork pieces cooked in aromatic spices in low heat for a long time until they melt in your mouth. Try this curry once, you’re gonna think of this curry every time you see a piece of pork.

I’ve been trying to perfectionate this Sri Lankan black pork curry for a really long time. I wanted to make my black pork curry with easily available Sri Lankan spices rather than trying my homemade curry powder blends. I wanted the texture of the pork curry to be very very tender. And the sourness to be balanced perfectly. And most of all I wanted it to be black in color at the end. I tried different curry powder blends, different sour ingredients, and different spice roasting methods for this. And this recipe right here clicks all those boxes for me.

To get the curry right, you need to follow a few things right.

1. Get a good cut of pork that has good fat content. Avoid lean pork cuts such as tenderloin. My recommendation is a pork butt. It’s actually the pork shoulder that people refer as pork butt. (Interested to know why? Read this article I found. https://applestonemeat.com/pork-butt-not-butt/)
2. marinate the pork pieces ahead of time. The acidity helps to make the pork tender.
3. cook the curry low and slow. So start making the curry ahead of time. Slow longer cooking helps to develop the black rich color that we all love. You can either cook the curry until there isn’t any gravy left. If you love some gravy turn the heat off a little earlier.
4. Roast the spices until the spices become really dark brown. I have noticed adding salt reduces the amount of smoke that produces. Make sure to lower the heat when you roast the spices otherwise you’d burn them. which would make the curry taste bitter. Turn off the heat if the pot is too hot.
5. Goraka or Garcinia Cambogia pasta is a must in this recipe. It has a unique sour taste. It also tenderizes the meat. You can use white vinegar as a substitute if it’s hard to find Garcinia.

Serving ideas:

• You can pretty much serve this with anything. it’s a very versatile dish.
• My favorite way is to have this Sri Lankan black pork curry with coconut sambol, lentil curry, and bread.
• For a party menu, I serve this curry with yellow rice, spicy potato fry, Lenti curry, and a salad.
• Also, you can also make the curry dry and use it as a sandwich filling or a wrap.

If you’re a pork lover, this is a must-try recipe. I hope you give it a try and let me know how it went.

Print Recipe

5 from 4 votes

Sri Lankan Black Pork Curry

Author: Roshani Wickramasinghe Cuisine: Sri Lankan Recipe Keys: Non Vegetarian Spicy

Difficulty: Beginner Prep Time 15 min Cook Time 60 min Total Time 1 hr 15 mins

Servings: 4

Description

Black pork curry is the most famous Sri Lankan pork dish that everyone loves. The fatty pork pieces cooked in aromatic spices in low heat for a long time until they melt in your mouth. Try this curry once, you're gonna think of this curry every time you see a piece of pork.

Ingredients

Servings

Marinade the meat

• 600 grams pork shoulder cut into small bite size pieces
• 2 teaspoons sri lankan roasted curry powder (more if you love the flavor of the spices)
• 1 teaspoon sri lankan roasted chili powder (adjust to your taste)
• 2 teaspoons goraka/garcinia cambogia paste
• 3 cardamoms crushed or powdered
• 3 cloves crushed or powdered
• 1 teaspoon salt

Other ingredients

• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 thumb size piece of ginger (2cm)
• ¹⁄₃ cup finely chopped onion
• 1 4-inch piece of lemon grass (white part) lightly crushed
• 1 small pandan leaf broken into pieces
• 1 sprig of curry leaves
• 2 teaspoons chili powder (adjust to your liking)
• 2 teaspoons sri lankan unroasted curry powder
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• ¹⁄₄ cup water

Instructions

1. marinate the pork pieced with all the marinating ingredients given in the list above. Let it marinate for at least 30mins to oven night in the fridge. ( longer marination is better)
   
2. Crush ginger and garlic in mortar and pestle to a rough paste.
   
3. Crush the lemongrass piece with the blunt side of your knife to release the oils.
   

4. Heat a pot and add coconut oil. When the oil starts to heat up add 1/4 tsp salt, chili powder, and unroasted curry powder. Fry them in low heat until the spices become dark brown to almost black. Turn off the heat if it's smoking too much. Stir continuously.

   
5. To that add crushed ginger and garlic, pandan leaves, curry leaves, lemongrass. Mix well with the spices.
   
6. Then add chopped onion and mix well with everything else. Saute for about a minute.
   
7. Add the marinated pork pieces to the pot. Mix well with the onions and spice mix. Saute for about a minute.
   
8. Then add 1/4 cup of water. Mix. Cover and cook on very low heat.
   

9. In about 30mins, taste the gravy and see if it has enough salt. If not add a little bit more. Cover again and cook in very low heat for about another 30 mins until the gravy thickens up and the pork becomes tender.
   The longer you cook, the darker it gets. If you feel like the curry is drying out, add a bit more water and continue cooking.

   
10. You can cook it until there's no gravy left and serve it as dry curry too. I'm attaching a photo from a different time I cook pork using this same recipe. Just to show you that you can cook it this way too.
    

Keywords: black pork curry, Sri Lankan pork curry, Black pork, Pork curry, Sri Lankan curry, Meat curry,