Northern Thai Pork Belly Curry (Gaeng Hung Lay)
If the Morbid Angel song "Hymn To A Gas Giant" from Formulas Fatal To The Flesh had it's own food, it would be Gaeng Hung Lay. Gaeng Hung Lay is a Northern Thai curry with pork belly, pork riblets, and whole cloves of garlic. It gets's its influence from Burmese and Indian cooking. If you don't have time to make the curry powder, you can substitute it for garam masala. There are a lot of steps in making this savory pork belly curry. But believe me; it will be worth it in the end.When making the curry powder, I highly recommend using a spice blender for the whole spices. You can definitely use a mortar and pestle like I did, but it really becomes a pain in the ass. What took 10 minutes to thoroughly smash will take less than 10 seconds in a spice blender. Making the curry paste is quite simple. Add all of the ingredients to a food processor and process the shit out of it. Slowly add water until it form a paste.This curry is a porky goodness. In a large pot, brown all of the pork belly without any oil. The belly will generate enough fat. After the belly and riblets are browned, add enough water to cover the pork. Don't have the pork completely submerged. It will just take longer to thicken the curry sauce. Adding the tamarind and dark soy sauce will darken it. This is one of a few Thai curries that doesn't use coconut milk. Instead it becomes a rich brown curry sauce. The last 20 minutes, add in whole garlic cloves and shallots. Garlic Pork Belly Curry Farts!
Servings: 4
Ingredients
Hung Lay Curry Powder
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp black peppercorns
- 2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- 2 tbsp coriander seeds
- 2 tbsp cumin seeds
- 1 star anise
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 2 tsp fennel
Hung Lay Curry Paste
- 10 dried red chilies
- 5 garlic cloves
- 1/3 cup shallots
- 1 stalk of lemon grass peeled
- 5 galangal slices
- 1 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp shrimp paste
- 2 tbsp Hung Lay curry powder
Pork Belly Curry
- 1 lb cubed skin on pork belly
- 1 lb cubed pork riblets
- 1/3 cup tamarind juice
- 2 tbsp palm sugar
- 2 tsp dark soy sauce
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 16 whole garlic cloves
- 1/2 cup shallots sliced
- 1/4 cup ginger julienned
Garnish
- ginger finely chopped
Instructions
Hung Lay Curry Powder
- Mix all powdered spices together.
- In a small skillet, lightly toast the whole spices for 3-4 minutes.
- In either a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder, pulverize the fuck out of the toasted spices. After this, I bought a spice grinder.
- Mix the powder spices and the ground spices together. Now you have your Hung Lay curry powder.
Hung Lay Curry Paste
- In a food processor, blend all curry paste ingredients. Slowly add water until it it a well blended paste.
- Your curry paste is now ready.
Gaeng Hung Lay Curry
- Cut the pork belly and riblets into cubes.
- In a large sauce pan, brown the pork belly on all sides.
- Add the pork riblets. Brown them.
- Stir in all of the curry paste. Let cook in the generated pork fat for a couple of minutes.
- Add enough water to cover the pork, but don't have it completely submerged.
- Stir in the tamarind juice, soy sauce, palm sugar, ginger, and fish sauce. Let simmer on low for 90 minutes. Now it's time to hit the bong and build up an appetite.
- After the curry has been simmering for 90 minutes, add the whole garlic cloves and sliced shallots. Simmer for another 20 minutes until the garlic cloves are soft.
- Serve with jasmine rice. Garnish with more freshly chopped ginger. All of this work is worth it.
