Not Just a Man's World

This recipe serves two purposes.  Firstly it removes the slightly primal (yoghurt) element of the original beef jalfrezi recipe and secondly, it shows you how to adapt the recipe to a slow-cooker, with two possibilities on how you can do this.  Incidentally, it also tests the idea of using a meat other than beef mince and we both thought it worked beautifully with chunks of pork.

Unlike most slow cooker recipes I’ve done this one does require a bit of pre-cooking but it’s worth it.

Paleo pork jalfrezi

Ingredients (serves 4-5):
2 tbsp olive oil
4 green chillies, chopped and seeds retained
1½ tbsp cumin seeds
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt (optional)
2x400g tins chopped tomatoes
1½ tbsp turmeric
1kg pork shoulder, chopped into chunks

Vegetables ingredients:
1-2 tbsp olive oil
2  large onions, roughly chopped
2 green bell peppers, roughly chopped
1 large courgette (zucchini), halved and sliced
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp garam masala

Directions (if you have time to do some last minute cooking):

1. Heat the oil in a large non-stick pan.  Add the chillies, cumin, garlic and salt and fry for a couple of minutes until the oils are being released from the items, but before they turn black.
2. Add the tomatoes and reduce a little over the high heat for a few minutes until the tomatoes are looking less watery.
3. Add the turmeric, stir into the tomatoes and leave to simmer for another couple of minutes until it is the consistency of a thick curry sauce.
4. Put the pork into the slow cooker pot, pour over the tomato sauce, stir together, cover and cook on low for 6 hours.
5. A few minutes before you want to serve, prepare the vegetables.  In a large frying pan, heat the oil and then add the onions, peppers and courgette to the pan.  Fry over a high heat for a couple of minutes until just beginning to soften.
6. Add the cumin and garam masala to the vegetables and mix in thoroughly.
7. Stir the vegetables in with the curry and serve up.

Directions (if you don’t have time for last minute cooking):

This is going to result in much softer vegetables but it should still taste fine, it just has a smidge less of some of the spices too.

Complete steps 1-6 above but use 2 tbsp cumin seeds at step 1 and include 1 tsp garam masala when you put the turmeric in at step 3.  Just before covering the slow cooker, stir in the vegetables in their raw state and cook them all together for 6 hours.

Related posts:

1. Paleo recipes: slow-cooker pork madras
2. Paleo recipes: keema (slow cooker)
3. Paleo recipes: slow cooker Thai pork
4. Paleo recipes: pork Rogan Josh