Okay know_hope this is one you should be able to recreate yourself if you like the sound of it. Unfortunately I made it a couple of days ago and didn’t photograph the dish before eating it all so I don’t have any evidence, but you’ll just have to trust me when I say “Dayum that shit was tasty!”
The Psyentist’s Moroccan Spiced Pork
Ingredients:
I’m not including weights or amounts as this dish is pretty flexible and each individual will probably tweak it to their own palette anyway, I made this recipe up by the way so sue me if it doesn’t contain authentic Moroccan ingredients.
Diced pork (I was feeding two so used 350g. No I don’t know which cuts were used, packet simply stated ‘diced pork’. At a guess it doesn’t matter as you cook it long enough to make it reet tender anyway)
Olive oil
1 large onion
Raisins (quantity depends on how much you like raisins)
At least 3 gloves of garlic
Turmeric
Cumin
Cayenne pepper
Cinnamon
Paprika (non-smoked)
Chicken or vegetable stock (1 cup for each serving of pork, so I used two. Preferably homemade but Oxo or any other branded variety will do the trick)
Rice (brown basmati is best for this dish imo but use what you want, couscous I suppose would be more authentic but meh)
Corn on the cob (optional and quite unnecessary but I was hungry and adds colour to the dish)
What to do:
Take your pork and place in a large bowl, add the spices one at a time. I started off with 2 tablespoons of paprika, 1 tablespoon of turmeric and one teaspoon of everything else, make the cumin a heaped spoon. Mix it all together to get the pork coated in the spices. Then add more of what you want and mix some more. Hard to tell what it tastes like at this point and I don’t advise licking the raw pork to find out; you should know what your taste buds like though so if you want it hot add more turmeric, cumin and cayenne pepper or some dried chilli, if you want it more sweet go with more cinnamon and paprika. I did the latter in an act of experimental self defiance because 9 times out of 10 I’d follow the spicy route. You can add more spices and herbs as its cooking so I wouldn’t worry about flavour too much at this stage. Leave to stand for 1-2 hours, or longer, the longer you leave it the more flavour the pork will absorb. Obviously if you’re leaving it overnight then place it in the fridge but I shouldn’t have to tell you that.
While you are waiting for the pork soak the raisins in a bowl of warm water and leave for 30 minutes.
I’ll point out at this point if you have a tagine use it, it will serve as not only a novel cooking vessel but a great flavour enhancer too. I didn’t have one to hand but have used one before and they work wonders.
Heat a little olive oil in a large saucepan/tagine and add roughly chopped onion. Cook onion over a medium heat (without pan/tagine lid) for 5-10minutes or until it starts to turn golden. Add the garlic and cook for another 5 minutes before adding the pork. Cook for approximately a further 5 minutes or until pork is no longer pink. Drain raisins but don’t go wasting that fruity flavoured water, keep hold of it. Add raisins and stock to pan/tagine, turn down the heat to a minimal flame and place the lid on. Leave this to cook for at least 45minutes-1hour+ (again the longer everything is together the more the flavours will blend), check on it every 10 minutes and give it a stir each time. If at any point it is looking like it’s drying up or lacking sauce add some of that raisin water. Also I found the flavour changes as it cooks so each time you check it you may want to add more of any of the spices to suit your taste.
Don’t forget about the rice and corn (if you’re having it), there should be so much flavour in the in the pork part that just boiling the rice as normal will suffice. I placed the corn in a basket steamer on top of the rice as it boils. Both the brown rice and corn take approximately 15-20 minutes to cook. You’ll have to do your own maths if you’ve strayed from my recipe.
Once everything is done serve, take a photo and enjoy, then upload your photo to PV so I can give you marks out of 10:wink:
