Pork and Sweet potato red curry with lazy brown rice.

On this rainy, cool Tuesday morning it felt like a Monday... humpf (we had a long weekend here in Australia so to a lot of us it kinda was a Monday). Waking up to find that Arthur has just discovered the toilet paper and decided it's a fun game to spin it until all the toilet paper end ups in a pile on the floor all ripped with holes in it somehow I don't think I was the only one who felt this either. The guy in front of me on the train this morning had his t-shirt on inside out (he bought it from cotton on and wore a size medium) and the man next to me was on the phone most of the train trip trying to get his flat tire fixed that by the sound of it he had only discovered flat this morning.

We have been having some of the oddest weather here in Sydney and today I feel like I should be in a scarf and my gumboots but instead I turned up to work with soggy socks then trekked it out again for the morning coffee run. On days like these I crave food that tastes like it has spent hours cooking on the stove or in the oven. Something that fills your cold little belly with a warm home cooked meal. 

During the week I feel like I cheat this little blog, I don't often stretch my cooking skills or bake much at all (or any eeek). I pick quick meals to cook. When I get home form work at 6:30pm, I give Arthur some much deserved cuddles, kick off my shoes, strip my uncomfortably too tight pencil skirt off, slip on a pair of daggy old sports shorts, tie my hair up in a sprout on top of my head and start on dinner. I want to be sitting down eating by 7:30... at the latest. 

Yes I know what your thinking - I'm a nanna. I can't help it.

Tonights dinner I got from Donna Hay's book 'no time to cook'. It has the flavours of a slow cooked dinner, the vegetables that give you that comforting full tummy feeling and the meat was so tender that you would be completely fooled when I tell you that it only took about 30 minutes of cooking but tastes like it cooked for hours. What more can you want from a mid-week dinner on a rainy Tuesday which feels like a Monday??

Pork and sweet potato red curry with lazy brown rice.

- recipe adapted from Donna Hay's 'no time to cook'

Serves 3 

note - this is a mild curry (unless you get the HOT curry paste)

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons red curry paste 

1 brown onion, sliced into chunks

1 teaspoon jarred grated ginger

400g can coconut cream

200ml water (I half filled the coconut cream can with water and gave it a slosh around)

1 vegetable stock cube

1 medium sized sweet potato, peeled and thinly sliced

200g pork fillet, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon dried coriander leaves (a small handful of fresh would be better but I didn't have any)

2 teaspoons fish sauce

1.5 cup brown rice

3 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

- Start with your rice. If your using white rice you can start it after you have the sweet potatoes boiling but brown rice takes longer. Put your brown rice, water and salt in a medium pot, give it a stir and bring it to the boil. Once it reaches boiling stage reduce it to low (as low as your stove can go), place a lid ajar and set a timer for 25 minutes.

- Heat the olive oil in a medium pot on high heat. Add the curry paste and cook for about 1 minute. Reduce the heat to medium and add the onion and ginger and fry for about 4 minutes or until the onions have softened but not coloured.

- Add the sweet potato, coconut cream, water and stock cube and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 15-20 minutes or until the potato is soft.

- Keep en eye on your rice! If the timer has finished, turn the heat off. Place the lid on properly and leave it for 10 minutes to keep steaming.

- Add the pork to the coconut cream sauce and cook for a further 6-8 minutes or until the pork is cooked through (this will depend on how thin you sliced your pork).

- Stir in the fish sauce and coriander at the last minute and serve with brown rice. 

A nice addition would be to add some freshly sliced chilli on top if you like a bit of spice!