India, a lot of color, and above all a lot of flavor, spices more or less known in the West, colorful spices, with a strong and refined taste, and monuments and history.

The way that brought Indian and Asian products to Europe in the past, products already useful and necessary in the kitchen since then, took its name from these delicate, spicy, variegated condiments, the Way of the Spices, which started from Portugal by sea and arrived in India and Indonesia, bringing products of all kinds and tales of incredible worlds, sumptuous palaces.

Now we know monuments such as the Taj Mahal, a graceful mausoleum with a sparkling white, south of New Delhi, or the Palace of the Winds (Hawa Mahal) of Jaipur in Rajastan, where the women of the royal family could observe the street parties without fear of being viewed.

Now maybe we defend the right to exist of tigers, which before were only fantastic animals present in the stories of the sailors, and which we can at present admire in specific documentaries or sadly enclosed in the cages of the zoos or those of the circuses.

But once, the only tangible testimony of those distant worlds were practically all the seasonings that came from those areas, for example, ginger, highly appreciated in the kitchen, precious flavoring, with interesting medicinal properties, important spice in the kitchen and in Ayurvedic practice, the garam masala mixture, prepared by toasting, grinding, and mixing ingredients that sometimes change from family to family, including garlic, chili, black pepper, turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom.

Food in India is a very serious matter, the recipes change from North to South, from state to state, from region to region, as do the territory and dialects, the language spoken by the people, and as well as Hindi, it gives a strong national identity to a diversified multitude, even particular recipes and particular preparations, recognized as such, a bit all over the nation, are testimony to a people, to a territory. Chef Bonea, who taught Italian cuisine at Dypatil University Mumbai, but who learned the Indian secrets of spicy flavors on site, presents us with an Indian dish par excellence, because it is recognized as such throughout India, but also beyond in the international cuisine, a delicious and tasty facet of ingredients present in different versions based on meat or vegetables and in some cases even fish, in this case the 'Pork Tikka'.

Pork Tikka

Category: meat
Origin: India
Drink to serve: Lassi dolce
Difficulty: medium
Preparation: 30 minutes - 4 hours in total

Ingredients for 4 servings

Marinade

1 onion, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
2-inch piece of ginger, roughly chopped
½ tablespoon ground cumin
½ tablespoon garam masala
½ pinch black pepper
1 cup thick plain yoghurt
1 lb pork tenderloin cut into 1-inch cubes

Sauce

1 large red onion, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
1-inch piece of ginger, roughly chopped
½ cup oil
1 tablespoon garam masala

To prepare the marinade, finely chop the onion, garlic and ginger, add the spices and yoghurt to the paste and mix through. Put the pork in a bowl, add the marinade and mix well. Cover and marinate in the fridge for 3 hours.

To make the sauce, finely chop the onion, garlic and ginger.

Heat the oil in a heavy-based frying pan, large enough to fit the meat in a single layer. Add the sauce and stir over medium heat for 2 minutes. Increase the heat to high and add the pork with the marinade. Then reduce the heat to medium and let the meat and its juices bubble away for 15/20 minutes or until the liquid has completely evaporated. The meat and the sauce will be a rich dark brown. Season with garam masala, cook another 2 minutes, and it is ready to serve.