It’s the start of Autumn, temperatures are heading south, and we’ve all but retired the salad spinner. I’m looking at hearty, warming recipes, and it seems like a good time to bring on the pork and beans!
In Coorg, pork dishes that combined pork (dried and smoked) with vegetables, bamboo shoot, or beans were typically prepared during the monsoon, This was when the stored and preserved abundance of Summer was put to good use.
My maternal grandmother may just have been a bit of a pork purist. As a rule, she didn’t care too much for pork commingling with vegetables in one pot! The only exception she made was when she cooked a particular dried pork dish into which she’d toss a few potatoes. I, on the other hand, love it cooked in combination with crisp greens, delicate squashes, starchy potatoes, and of course, with beans.