Our beloved chef Tom reached food fusion nirvana with this pulled Pork Vindaloo Christmas Curry recipe. It all starts with getting the browning just right and then in goes the flavour, cinnamon, star of anise, curry leaves, red onions and lots of salt. Add to this a special green sauce, lashings of red wine and viola! Your very own Christmas curry. Pair with a special Brussel sprout slaw and layer this all together on a deliciously grilled piece of panettone for the most excellent Christmas curry concoction. You can find the full breakdown of the recipe below and the video above, Happy Christmas!
Preheat your oven to 155°C.
Season your pork pieces well with salt. Heat the oil in a large, oven-proof pot over medium-high heat and brown your pork pieces (in two batches if necessary) until well browned all over.
Meanwhile, blend the ginger, garlic, coriander and green chilli in a blend (with a little water if necessary) until smooth.
Chuck the whole spices and bay leaves into the pork fat and temper for 20 seconds or so, then add the curry leaves (watch out as they’ll splutter at you!), shortly followed by the onions and a good pinch of salt. Cook for 15 minutes or so, until soft and the bottom of the pot is clean.
Add your green paste to the pot and fry until the oil separates, about 10 minutes. Return the pork to the pot and turn through the base. When everything is hot, pour in the wine and vinegar and top up with a little water if necessary so as to almost cover the pork. Cover with some greaseproof paper and place the lid on, then transfer to the oven to cook for 3 hours.
After a couple of hours or so, you can assemble your slaw. Heat the oil over medium-high heat and chuck in your mustard seeds. When they start to pop, add your curry leaves (watch out as they can splutter at you!). Immediately tip the oil, spices and leaves over the raw sprouts.
Squeeze the lemon over the sprouts to cool down the mix, then proceed to add all of the remaining ingredients apart from the salt and mix well. Season to taste with salt roughly 10 minutes before serving.
For the panettone toasts, brush your panettone on one side with the melted butter and transfer to a griddle pan set over medium heat. Cook until nicely charred on one side, then quickly brush the exposed side with butter (whilst still in the pan) and flip. Once equally cooked on the other side transfer the toasts to a low oven (150°C) to further dry out.
Remove the chunks of pork to a large bowl and shred with two forks, leaving a few chunks here and there. Gradually add the braising liquid until your pork is deliciously saucy and moist (you may have a little left over for dunking!).
Cut the panettone into triangles (like a pizza) and load with the pulled pork, slaw and top with the crackling (if using) and pomegranate seeds. Dig in!
