ingredients for sweet potato & pork red curry
dear Miss J, I hope your curry night goes well this weekend. since you are taking a curry to a dinner party, it needs to be one that will travel well, so we might give the green chicken curry a miss. this one is dead simple (if you use a store-bought paste), tasty and a bit different than your average curry. you can eat it for days afterwards.
500g belly pork strips / pork spare ribs with minimum bone – just make sure the meat has some fat on it. you can make it with lean pork but the result is pretty grim.
1-2 red sweet potatoes – there should be more potato than pork
1 onion
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 pkt red curry paste (mild/medium)
1 tin coconut milk
fish sauce
palm sugar (or brown sugar)
1 lime
1 bunch of basil
optional veg: a handful of green beans, or a small zuccinni
basmarti rice
thai basil
all ingredients available at your average supermarket.
slice the onion into thin strips, and chop the pork into bite-sized pieces. peel the sweet potato and cut into chunks.
in a saucepan, fry onion and pork in a little oil until browned. add 4-6 heaped teaspoons of red curry paste (to taste) and fry gently. add chicken stock, bring to the boil then simmer for 30 mins. add sweet potato chunks, and a little water – enough to just barely cover the food. cover and simmer for another 20 mins. pork should be tender and sweet potato soft.
remove the lid and allow the liquid to reduce a bit, then add in the coconut milk, and stir through. add the chunks of beans or zuccini. allow to heat and just simmer very gently for a further 10 minutes – the sweet potato should be starting to disintegrate and thicken the sauce. during this time add about half a tsp each of fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar to the curry and stir through – taste and adjust as necessary (if too sour, add sugar; if too sweet, add lime; if too bland add a dash of fish sauce.) depending on the curry paste you’ve chosen, you may not need to add some or all of these three condiments – so the taste test is important.
roughly tear the basil leaves and stir a handful through the curry. remove from heat, and serve with basmarti rice (or grab the saucepan and head off to your curry night).
