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Gahori aru Omita

Fatty pork cooked down with raw papaya, ginger and green chilli — a simple, much-loved Assamese pork curry.

Ingredients

• 750 g pork with fat and skin, cut in 1½ inch pieces
• 400 g raw papaya (omita), peeled and cubed
• 2 onions, sliced
• 2 tbsp ginger paste
• 1 tbsp garlic paste
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 5 green chillies, slit (or ½ bhut jolokia)
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp mustard oil
• salt to taste

Method

1. Wash the pork and toss with turmeric and salt.
2. Heat mustard oil in a heavy pot. Add bay leaves and pork. Cook on medium 15 minutes until the fat melts out and the pork browns in its own fat.
3. Add the onions and cook 5 minutes till soft.
4. Add ginger and garlic paste and green chillies, stir 3 minutes.
5. Add the papaya and 1 cup water. Cover and cook on low 35–40 minutes, stirring now and then, till the pork is tender.
6. Uncover and cook 5 minutes till the gravy thickens and coats the meat.

Tip: Don't add much oil — the pork fat is the cooking fat. A pressure cooker cuts the time to 4 whistles.