Pork Sorpotel (Goan style)

Today's post is truly special. I am posting the recipe of my most favoritest pork dish. SORPOTEL. I have eaten pork sorpotel for every Christmas for the last so many years And of course on other special occasions too, like a wedding in the family, Easter and a loved one visiting after a long time. The credit for this recipe completely goes to my mum in law (MIL). She has been laboriously cooking this dish year after year on every special occasion and she has been kind enough to share the exact details not only of the ingredients but the method too. She in fact made a smaller quantity once, no special occasion, just so that I could watch and learn. How great is that! I learnt to cook this a few years ago when my MIL was visiting her daughter in another city for Christmas and we would be without sorpotel. I took this opportunity to put my notes to good use and voila....here we are

Sorpotel has Portugese influence, and is made by the Goan, Manglorean and East Indian Christian communities. This dish is made in large quantities since it is mostly served on special occasions like weddings, birthdays and parties. The best part about this dish is that it can be cooked well in advance. In fact it tastes much better and more pickled with each passing day. Each community makes it differently, for instance the Manglorean community cook sorpotel with the pork offals, and parts of the pig that are otherwise usually discarded. They also add pig blood to the preparation. I have never eaten this dish, as it is not available commercially. So unless you get invited to someone's house for a meal, where this dish is prepared and served, there is a slim chance of you getting to taste this. The East Indian community, on the other hand, has two versions of the sorpotel, one red sarpatel, where they  use their famous bottle masala and the green sarpatel, where they use whole ingredients i.e.without being ground. And finally the Goan community cook this dish with pork meat and liver. The method is mostly the same, where the meat is par-boiled and then chopped into tiny pieces and fried in its own fat, after which the spices are ground in vinegar and added to the meat, and is left to soak in the spicy goodness for a few hours after which it is finally cooked. This dish tastes best a couple of days after it is made.

This dish is not for the faint hearted. So brace yourselves for some hard work, and no shame in asking for help, specially when it comes to chopping the meat. But you will love it when it's ready and when you see your loved ones taking third and fourth helpings. All the hard work will be worth it! So let the cooking begin!

IMPORTANT NOTE :

• The ingredients in the recipe are for half kg meat (meat includes liver). Please adjust ingredients as per the quantity of meat you will cook.
• It is recommended that for every 1 kg of pork meat, add 1/2 kg pork liver. This combination tastes best. However this is optional. You can adjust these quantities based on your preference.
• Use pork belly for this dish, as the belly portion has the best distribution of meat, fat and skin.

Spice Mix: For 1/2 kg meat

1. Kashmiri Cilly - 5 nos
2. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
3. Black peppercorns - 20 nos
4. Cinnamon - 1 inch stick
5. Cloves - 5
6. Cardamom - 2
7. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
8. ***Vinegar - as required

Dry grind the above ingredients to a fine powder. Add vinegar last to make a paste. Use as much vinegar as needed but be careful as too much will make the dish too sour. You may use water sparingly.

Ingredients for chopping:

1. Onion - 1 medium (finely chopped)
2. Garlic - 5 medium flakes (finely chopped) 
3. Ginger - 1/2 inch piece (finely chopped)
4. Green chilly - 1 no (finely chopped)

Method:

1. Wash the meat well. Place the whole chunk of meat in a sauce pan and add 1 cup of water. Bring it to a boil, lower the flame to medium and let the meat cook for ten to fifteen minutes. 
2. Set the meat aside for cooling. Reserve the water. Cool the water and refrigerate.
3. Once the meat has cooled, cut the meat into quarter or half inch cubes. Keep the meat and liver pieces separate.
4. Heat a pan, pour little oil, fry the chopped meat first. Fry till it changes colour. Use a little oil initially to get started, as later the pork will release its fat and you will not need oil. 
5. Fry the liver till it turns black. Note that the liver needs to be fried longer than the meat. Set aside the fried meat.
6. Heat oil in a sauce pan, fry the onions till they turn golden brown, then add the remaining chopped ingredients. Fry well. 
7. Add the ground red paste and fry it well. 
8. Add the meat and liver, and salt, mix well. Put off the flame. Note: No cooking.
9. Let the meat marinate for four to six hours. 
10. After six hours, put the pan with the meat on the stove, add the reserved water, and bring to a boil, and then cook on slow flame for thirty minutes. 
11. Sorpotel is ready but don't serve it yet. For the next three days, heat the meat twice a day on medium to slow flame, preferably once in the morning and once at night. 
12. It is ready to be served.
13. If you have made a large quantity you can refrigerate and use it for a week to ten days.
14. You can also freeze it and eat it for up to three months.

You can serve this with sannas, pau or pulao.