The best thing next to a barbecue

Summer's here. Time to get outside, do garden barbecues and enjoy all those extra added macho-style risks that come with uncooked meat and soil bacteria. But now you can add an extra tasty side dish of Deema's potato curry as the ideal complementary dish.

I tried this by bringing a quickly cooked-up potato curry to my friend's homewarming barbie, instead of the usual bottle of plonk. Everyone loved it. In fact, they went on about my contribution more than the sausages.

Yes, you heard it here folks - veg curry was more popular than meat at a barbecue. Then people kept thrusting glasses of wine in my hand and the details become a bit hazy. The things we do in the name of the cause.

Potato curry is easy. Just follow the instructions on the packet. Remember, brown the potato in the curry powder first before cooking it in a quality tin of coconut milk. Have a good weekend.

Pistachio Pork & Spinach Curry

Sunday morning was spent in the kitchen cooking. Mainly because I couldn't fit the newly bought groceries into the fridge and freezer. And the sun wasn't out.

Pistachio Pork
250g of pistachios - give it a couple of bashes so you have some small bits
1 tbs of honey
1 tsp of crushed cumin
2tbs of coarse ground black pepper
1 tbs of chillie
Left over white wine and a splash of soya sauce
And pork. I used a 1.2kg leg which I cut up and trimmed the fat,

Mix all the ingredients and rub into pork chops. Marinate for at least an hour - more if you have the time. Then fry when ready. Add the wine and soy sauce and let it simmer. Leave some of the nutty mixture for serving.

Spinach Curry
Spinach, left over choi sim and halved some cherry tomatoes for colour.
3 cloves of garlic chopped
1 x Coconut milk tin
2 tbs Deema's Spices

Fry the garlic, add the leaves and tomatoes, 2 tbs of Deema's Spices and coconut milk.
Let it it boil then simmer till you are happy with the taste.

Pork crackling
Rubbed salt and the cumin (yes crushed too much!) into the skin and roasted it. Delicious. I ate most of it.

Scallop Curry

I wanted to eat something tasty. Something different - something seafoody but not prawns.
So I made scallop curry.

I proccessed: 1 onion, 3 cloves of garlic, handful of curry leaves, 2 birds eye chillies (quite fiery with 2) and 2 teaspoons of deemaspice.

Then I put in 1 tablespoon of oil into my fave wok and added the paste, turn down the heat and added 400g of scallops mixed it all up for about 2 minutes then added 1 tin of coconut milk. Brought to boil and simmered for about 4 minutes. Added a squeeze of lime juice. (about 2 tablespoons or so)

Chopped up 200g of pak choi and added that in at the very end - takes a minute or so for pak choi to cook.

Here's what it looked like cooking in my wok.

Now only have to wait till suppertime. Boo!
(I have been sneaking my little teaspoon into the wok and it is deeeelicious!)