Curried Pork and Sweet Potato Stew

Last night's dinner came together very quickly, smelled heavenly while it was cooking but quite honestly looked like "pretend sick" on the plate, which is why you're not seeing a picture of it right here.

This Curried Pork and Sweet Potato Stew from Cooking Light, is low on calories and really high on flavor. While it requires at least 12 hours of pre-planning so you can make the yogurt cheese, it made good use of a boneless pork sirloin roast that I bought as a Manager's Special at Sprouts a few weeks ago, and hid in the freezer for just such an occasion.

Cut into 3/4 inch cubes and browned off in my favorite Dutch Oven, the pork was eventually joined by cubed sweet potato, onion, red and green bell peppers, lots of garlic, and curry powder of course. Topped with chicken broth and a touch of tomato sauce, it was supposed to get 45 minutes in the oven before receiving its finishing touches on top of the stove. 

Well unfortunately it sat just a tad too long because the big guy and I got talking about our day, so by the time it was thickened with a cornstarch slurry, and finished with yogurt cheese, the vegetables had disintegrated into a colorful mush. By the way, I did not bother purchasing $5.00 worth of coconut extract for the couple of drops required in the recipe, but served the curry on top of some rice cooked in low fat coconut milk and topped with fresh coconut instead. The curry may have looked bad, but it sure tasted good - really good in fact. 

When I make it again and yes I said WHEN because it deserves a repeat performance, I won't bother thickening the sauce. Since I have this thing about coating meat with flour before browning it, the sauce had thickened slightly anyway - what there was of it, that is. I'll just add the extra spices to the pot before it goes into the oven, and use the sweet maple syrup yogurt cheese as a garnish on top. That way if the noshing individual wants to make mush out of it, it's their choice.

Now let's get to the moral of the story. What does a dirty martini have to do with Curried Pork Stew?  Well, two things actually -

1. You can't always judge a book by its cover; and
2. One too many of these and quite honestly you don't care what you're eating.

Comments

[Mags]

Wish I was sitting there drinking one of those dirty martinis with ya!

The stew sounds delicious but I know what you mean about taking pictures of something that just doesn't look good, even though it tastes wonderful.

[Nanan]

Bravo - love a good story with two morals!!!!! esp. involving a dirty maritini!!! I will make it without the tomatoes and I bet it will be fabu!

[June]

Mags - wish you were sitting here too, but you'd be drinking that dirty martini with the big guy. I go for less "explosive" drinks like Margaritas. Ha.

Lea - you're right - it'll be fine without the tomatoes. I mean just how much flavor does one get with a 1/4 cup? I shoulda' left them out too.