A Curry A Day

My Bestie is in Hawaii, hopefully having a glorious time in the sunshine. When her husband asked us if we could get all of the kids together this weekend for a play date (and so he could have some adult conversation), of course the answer was a resounding, "Yes!"

So today rolled around, and I honestly hadn't given a lot of thought to what we were going to do, or to eat. Also, suddenly, each of our kids had a friend coming over. All around dinner time. With 5 teenagers already in the house, that's a LOT of mouths. I poked around the house to see what we have handy, and I have to say, I wasn't encouraged. Moments like these almost always call for one of my favorite and most versatile meals - curry.

We had a beautiful pork roast from the pig my parents gave us for Christmas. Kira was able to scrounge some greens and a quart of tomatoes from the deep freeze, and I always have bulk Indian spices in the house. Here's what we came up with:

Pork Scrounge Curry
(serves 8-12)
1 Tbsp olive oil
4 cloves
8 black peppercorns
2 1/2 -3 lb pork roast, cubed
1 tsp ground turmeric
3 tsp chili powder
3 tsp crushed coriander seeds
2 inch piece of cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 bag frozen stew veggies
2 c frozen greens (collards, kale, spinach, or cruciferous greens)
1 qt water or tomato juice
1 qt frozen or canned chopped tomatoes
4 cup cooked lentils
steamed brown rice

Heat oil in large pan. Lower heat and add cloves, peppercorns, baby onions, and celery (from frozen stew veggies. Fry for about 5 minutes or until the baby onions are lightly browned and celery has softened. Add the cubed pork, turmeric, chili powder, coriander seeds, and garlic salt, and stir fry for about 5 minutes or until meat is seared on all sides.

Pour in water or tomato juice, greens, and remaining frozen veggies. Cook on medium heat for about 30 minutes while your lentils and rice are cooking.

Lightly mash the cooked lentils to release some of the starch. Stir mashed lentils into the curry, and cook on medium until the curry reduces and thickens. The final consistency should be stew-like.

Serve over steamed rice.