Pork and Vegetable Stew with Curry-Garlic Rice

Out with the fish or beef and in with this colourful and spicy combo of pork and vegetables. With a fragrant serving of curry-garlic rice to brighten up your meal, you’re set for lunch or dinner. I find that spicy is the best way to eat pork and a simple marinade of ginger, red chillies and salt is all that is needed for this delicious pork and vegetable stew. 

This pork and vegetable stew packs quite a bit of heat and gets a beautiful red tinge from vibrant red chillies. The pork pieces are not overly fatty and so you can eat them in good conscience. Plus, the little fat that they do have adds additional flavour and that is exactly how we want it. 

Do not let the peppers or heat scare you. If you don’t take anything from this post or recipe then do remember this pork trio: pork + hot peppers + ginger. This will transform your meh sounding pork recipe into the wow-this-is-so-good dish. You can regulate the intensity of the hot peppers if you so wish. The vegetables, mushrooms, carrots, cabbage,spring onions and zucchinis are necessary and add an extra punch to this dish.

Pork consumption is generally not as common as goat, beef, chicken or fish in Ghana. However, it has gained popularity increasingly. Domedo (pork roasted in an oven) however happens to be quite popular. This great piece by Naa Oyoo Quartey does a fantastic job of highlighting a Domedo maker who has been in the business for almost 100 years!

As someone who spent a majority of her childhood in Germany, pork was a pretty regular part of our meals. Even the choice of breakfast cuts and sausages were very much pork-based. From Bierschinken and Mortadella to Leberwurst, Salami and Schinken, the varieties were astounding.

Back in Ghana, the pork consumption reduced significantly but we still made a myriad of pork dishes.  Roasted pork (seasoned with black pepper and mustard) or pork stew (a tomato-based stew with anise, ginger, and cloves) or pork khebabs ( beautiful fatty, bite-sized cuts of pork, coated with dried powdered pepper plus a mix of other spices and then speared on wooden skewers and grilled over charcoal). However one of the pork highlights for me was pork skins, fried to almost a crisp and mixed with some of the pork fat, dry gari, ground kpakposhito, and onions. What sounds really unassuming was in reality an exciting treat. Talk about making use of all the parts of the pig.

But back to the second bit of this recipe. Plain white rice is great but I also love to switch it up now and then. Sometimes a simple combination of garlic, onions and coconut oil or just rosemary changes rice completely. For this rice recipe, you will need just 3 simple ingredients, coconut oil (or any vegetable oil), curry powder, and garlic. The resulting yellow coloured rice is visually very appealing and tastes as good as it looks.

Now add that flavourful, vegetable-laden pork stew and you're in for a treat and consequently maybe a well-deserved nap. If you can't eat pork for religious reasons or you're just not a fan then you can use chicken for this recipe. You can also try this cheesy shrimp stew, this very inviting liver stew or some lamb.