Pork varattiyathu!! Pork cooked and roasted with chilli, spices and coconut. One of my favorite dish since my childhood days. I adapted this recipe from my grand mother. This Pork masala Fry recipe is a "must" dish at a Kerala Christian home especially in Trichur, for any special occasion. This goes well with rice.
Check out Coorgi Pork curry here.

Ingredients
Marination
- 1 Kilogram pork
- ½ Teaspoon turmeric Powder
- 1 Teaspoon Chilly Powder
- 2 Chilly Green
- 1 Teaspoon ginger (crushed/grinded)
- ½ Teaspoon pepper Powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Masala
- 2 Cups Shallots / Small onion
- salt
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 3 Teaspoons garlic (crushed/grinded)
- 2 Teaspoons ginger (crushed/grinded)
- 1 ½ Teaspoons garam masala
- 4 Teaspoons coriander Powder
- 4 Teaspoons Chilly Powder
- 1 Cup Thengakothu (Small square size coconut pieces) or grated coconut
- 4 Sprig curry leaves
Instructions
- Cut cleaned pork into cube size pieces. Marinate pork with ingredients listed under marination. Add 2 tablespoon of water to this and cook covered till the pork is done. In a regular pan, it might take around 45 minutes. In pressure cooker, it would be done in 1-2 whistles. In the authentic preparation, it's cooked in a regular pan. Refer notes on tips about best pork cuts that suit this recipe.
- ** Drain the excess oil out of the pan. Don't forget to do this. Otherwise the final dish would be very oily. I prefer using this oil to saute the onion and masala.
- Heat oil in a pan and fry coconut pieces until it becomes golden brown color. Keep it aside. ** Another alternative for coconut pieces is grated coconut. If you are using grated coconut, fry ¾ cup of grated coconut until it gets brown color. Pulse it in a mixer without water. Don't make it to a fine powder. The authentic Thrissur style pork preparation is with grated coconut, and would highly recommend it 🙂
- Heat oil in a pan. Saute sliced small onions, salt and lots of curry leaves. Saute it until onion turns golden brown. Then add crushed garlic and ginger paste. Saute it well.
- Add chilly powder, coriander powder and garam masala. Saute it well and if required add more oil.
- Now add cooked pork and fried coconut pieces/ powdered grated coconut prepared in step 3. Adjust salt. Cook on low flame for around 15 - 20 minutes. If required, add oil in between. Stir it until it becomes black in color. Enjoy with rice 🙂
Notes
In the United States, different kind of pork cuts is available. Pork Butt cut is the best that suits this recipe. In Bay Area, I usually get it from Seafood City.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!