Another Rick Stein recipe and a request from my sister to make it for her when she came visiting recently. Khmer Pork, Coconut & Pineapple Curry‘s a savoury sweet dish; savoury coz it’s a curry and sweet coz ripe pineapple’s added to it. An interesting but at the same time delish curry..
Recipe from Rick Stein’s “Far Eastern Odyssey”
- 800g lean boneless pork shoulder
- 1 small pineapple or 200g prepared fresh pineapple cubes
- 4 small round green Thai aubergine or 100g purple aubergines
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 40g fresh coconut, grated
- 300ml coconut milk
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tsp palm sugar (or sugarcane sugar)
- 1 tbsp tamarind water
- leaves from 1 small bunch of Thai sweet basil
Ingredients for Curry Paste (kroeung):
- 25g peeled galangal, roughly chopped
- 1 tsp ground turmeric or 25g fresh turmeric, roughly chopped
- 20g garlic, roughly chopped
- 4 fat lemongrass stalks, core chopped
- 50g shallots, roughly chopped
- 2 kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded
- 1 strip pared lime zest (from a kaffir lime, if available)
- 1 tsp Cambodian or Thai shrimp paste
- 1 medium hot red or green chili, chopped
timetable
recipe
Serves | 4 |
Prep time | 30 mins |
Cook time | 75 mins |
Total time | 105 mins |
Preparation:
- Pound or blend all curry paste ingredients. Add 1-2 tbsp water (I used 2 tbsp vegetable oil i/o water) to get paste moving, if necessary.
- Cut pork into 2.5-3cm pcs. If necessary, peel pineapple, cut it into 4 wedges lengthways, slice away core and cut fruit into chunks. Cut round green aubergines into wedges or purple aubergines into pieces similar in size to pineapple.
- Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wide-based pan or wok, add half of pork pcs and brown lightly on all sides. Set aside on a plate and repeat remainder.
- Add remaining oil and curry paste to pan or wok and fry gently over a medium heat for 2-3 mins till it starts to smell aromatic. Return pork and to pan with 300ml water, part-cover and leave to simmer gently for 1 hr.
- Uncover, add grated coconut, pineapple, aubergines and coconut milk and simmer with lid off for a further 10 mins.
- Add fish sauce, sugar and tamarind juice, then stir in basil. Season to taste with salt and serve.

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Hi there. Thanks for this great recipe. My name is Veasna Kay and i’m a chef here in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I’ve created a video of my version of this dish. See here http://veasnainthekitchen.com/khmer-pork-coconut-pineapple-curry
My love of Khmer food has led me to create regular video recipes which I upload online weekly. If Visitors of this page are interested they can find them on my site at http://veasnainthekitchen.com/videos-recipes/ – I also teach private cooking classes for visitors here in Phnom Penh. I believe Khmer Food is the best in the world and it is making a comeback, slowly but surely people will become more aware of our amazing food heritage and natural culinary skills. Thanks again for posting this recipe.