Red Coconut Curry

Somebody asked for a quick and easy recipe and I was stumped. I didn't know where to begin! Then I thought let's go with some Asian condiments. They're deeply complex and a little goes a LONG way!

This is a six ingredient meal!

Aren't you excited?

I am!

Wait, it's seven if you count the salt. You can't leave out the salt!

This is a seven ingredient meal!

I'm still excited!

Wait, heck, it's nine if you count the "garnish." I'm very partial to garnish.

I'm not quite as excited as I was.
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First you'll need some meat!

I chose some pork loin because it was sitting in my freezer being lonely.  Here's the deal, I made this with pork and the pork is wonderful in the crock pot version of this meal. You are about to see the pan cooked version. The pan cooked version would work better with chicken or turkey breast. If tenderness if important to you, use poultry!

My pork looks a little stiff don't you think? It's slightly frozen you see. I gave it a really quick run in the microwave and then started to cut on it. Meat is so much easier to cut when it's frozen. You can trim the fat off at this point if that's important to you.

So I cubed it up into 1 inch pieces, seasoned it with salt and threw it in a Ziploc bag to finish thawing in a sink full of cold water.

I just can't help myself with the whole thawing in cold water thing. All of my formative cooking years were before the microwave became available to the middle class!

Now I've peeled some fresh ginger root and I have some fresh garlic all peeled too! Do you see it up there in the upper left hand corner? The garlic closeup didn't work out.

Now chop up your ginger and garlic together at the same time! You can use the pre-minced stuff, you just get a brighter stronger flavor from fresh.  Heck you could even use the dried powdered versions of these. If you were desperate . . . you know . . . cooking in a strange kitchen . . . making curry while camping . . . there are all sorts of emergency conditions when you could substitute them.

Good enough!

Now just enough vegetable oil in your pan to see the heat! I know my pan is ready when the oil gets shimmery. I don't have a picture of shimmery but you'll know it when you see it! If you get smoke you're past shimmery!

Throw the garlic and ginger in! If you're using powdered just skip this step. Powdered ginger and garlic do not benefit from hot oil. They'll just get brown and bitter!

Stir it around until you think you've walked into a Chinese restaurant. Your house is going to smell like this the next 24 hours. I think that's a good thing! Perspective, its all about perspective! This only takes 30 seconds or so.

Now for some coconut milk! I use the full on non-light version. I have this deep personal suspicion that it prevents wrinkles. Have you ever looked at those Asian women? No wrinkles!

Now if you see something labeled "cream of coconut" head the other way. It's a sweetened syrupy concoction suited for desserts and pina coladas!

Pour it in.

Grab some red curry paste! Now my Hy-Vee has recently started to hide this in the organic section and I don't know why. It's not organic! Us non-hippies enjoy curry! What the heck? What if you have no curry paste available to you? Substitute a couple a tablespoons of curry powder instead. Call it Yellow Coconut Curry and it'll be between you and me!

My coconut milk has actually started to boil while I open my curry paste. Put a big dollop in. I used about 2 tablespoons for this recipe. It's a good start. I personally could use the whole dang 1/2 cup container but others say it's too hot for the children . . .

We interrupt this recipe for a small story. My daughter first tried curry when she was 18 months old. It was entirely too hot for her but she insisted in the way only toddlers do that she wanted it. It was so hot she cried at the first bite. Then she howled when I took it away. She insisted on eating every bite of a curry that was HOT! 

Now if I could only get her to eat spaghetti sauce . . .

Back to the recipe! You just put the curry paste in.

There it is. Sitting like a lump!

I'm squishing it with the spatula! You thought spatulas were just for pancakes didn't you!

Oh look it's all mixed in now! You can see the little bits of garlic and ginger sticking to the spatula. Mmmm, I love naturally orange food!

Throw in your meat!

Mmmmm, meat!

Stir it around until it's cooked. I just checked it with a knife. My pork took over 10 minutes to cook! I had some pretty big pieces you see. The quicker you want your dinner the tinier you should cut your meat!

Oh look! Our friend cilantro is here! Let's chop up some of it's leaves and tender stems!

Oh! Our buddy, scallion! Let's take off its roots and slice 'er up!

I turned off the heat and added scallion and cilantro. Now I mixed them in because they make it taste so good but feel free to just use them as a garnish. They make everything pretty!

Oh it smells so exotic! The curry paste has all sorts of yummy bitter and sour flavors in it! You salt the meat to your taste of course. The coconut milk adds the tiniest bit of sweetness. I would choose to add more sweetness to this with a side dish. Some lovely sweet green peas, rich orange carrots, crisp delicious cucumbers or even a really good iceberg lettuce salad!

Naan or steamed basmati rice would finish this out perfectly!

Oh and you've got to have beer with curry! It's a must. Anyone you want will do but if you want to feel authentic go with your favorite IPA. IPA does stand for Indian Pale Ale. They're meant to cut the heavy, spicy, sweet richness of a classic curry.

Red Coconut Curry

2 lbs meat, diced 

1 14 oz can coconut milk

2 Tablespoons red curry paste

1/4 cup minced ginger root (2 Tbsp of pre-packaged paste or 1 tsp powdered)

1/4 cup minced garlic cloves (same for pre-packaged minced, or 1 tsp powdered)

1 tsp vegetable oil

salt

garnish

1/2 cup minced cilantro

1/2 cup sliced scallions

Stove Top version: recommended meats-->chicken breast, turkey breast, fish or shrimp

Season meat with salt. Heat oil in pan over medium high heat until shimmer. Add garlic and ginger. Stir until fragrant. Add coconut milk and curry paste. Bring to a boil. Stir until well mixed. Add meat and cook until done to your liking. Garnish with cilantro and scallions. Serve.

Crock Pot version: recommended meats--> pork loin, chuck roast

Dice meat into 1-2 inch pieces. Season with salt. Add meat to crock pot. Mix ginger, garlic, coconut milk, and curry paste together and pour over meat. Stir. Cook all day over low heat. Garnish with cilantro and scallions. Serve.