The Common Culinarian

This recipe is a tribute to my good friends, Robert and Mary Lee, and their Chicken Curry in a Hurry. They prepared it for me once, and I had the recipe, but I don’t any longer I do know that their chicken curry did not have the same base as mine, but that doesn’t mean it was any less tasty!

Ingredients:

• Oil
• 1 pound of pork, cubed (I had chops on hand)
• 2 cups of green beans
• 1 bell pepper, cut into strips and cut again to be bite-sized
• 14 ounces of coconut milk
• 4 teaspoons of red curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of lime juice

Directions:

1. Start some rice and let it cook while you’re working on the pork curry.
2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.
3. Add a tablespoon of oil and the pork; cook the pork until it is no longer pink inside.
4. Remove the pork from the heat and set aside.
5. Add a tablespoon of oil to the skillet and add the green beans; cook for about 3-5 minutes, until the beans are heated through.
6. Add the bell pepper and cook for another 3 minutes or so, until the pepper is heated through, but still crisp.
7. Add the coconut milk and curry, onion, and garlic powders. Stir to combine.
8. Add the pork back to the skillet, and heat through.
9. Just before serving, add the sugar and lime juice and stir to combine.
10. Serve along side or on top of fresh rice.

This recipe was actually inspired by a recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens cook book, but I changed a lot of the ingredients to things I had on hand. If you want more color, you can use a red or yellow bell pepper–they are just so expensive this time of year, and I didn’t have this dish planned when I went shopping last night, so I opted for the green variety. If you can’t find coconut milk, or it’s too exotic for you, you could also substitute plain yogurt. I also really like the taste of curry, which is why there is a lot in the dish. You can tone it down to your tastes

Hal’s Hint: Don’t blindly follow the directions for cooking your rice! If you do, you might end up burning it. A good rule of thumb is 2-to-1 liquid to rice. Bring the liquid and the rice to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cover. Check periodically; the rice is done when there are tubes, like in the picture, and you can no longer see liquid easily. When it’s done, turn off the heat and just let it hang out. Any liquid left in the bottom, which there shouldn’t be much, will absorb into the rice after about 5 or 10 minutes. To make your rice more flavorful, you can use stock instead of just plain water.