BBC Good Food Recipe Review: Thai Pork and Peanut Curry

I fancied a change this week, and I had a nice piece of Tesco Finest pork fillet in the freezer which I'd picked up from the reduced section the other week, so this recipe was perfect for bringing a bit of Eastern exoticism to my mid-Winter menu. 

With the advantage of being, essentially, an exotic stew.  And as you know, stews are my kind of cooking. 

First, the tweaks.  Naturally, I added some more vegetables - as well as being a bit addicted to vegetables this is a good Weight Watchers trick to reduce the number of points in a recipe (the vegetables bulk whatever you're making out, so the same number of points are spread over more portions, thus reducing the number of points in each portion).  The recipe said baby corm it, so I picked up one of those packs of baby carrots and green beans and added them at the same time as the recipe said to add the baby corn.  I steamed the carrots for 20 minutes first so they weren't hard in the final dish.  I also reduced the amount of peanut butter to reduce the number of Weight Watchers points.  The recipe said 4 tablespoons, I used 6 teaspoons (which is half of 4 tablespoons).  I was a little concerned that the final dish wouldn't taste peanutty but I can testify that it tasted WONDERFULLY peanutty. 

In fact, I should say at this point that I LOVED this dish.  It's incredibly easy and absolutely delicious - it tastes really exotic and exciting and so gorgeous that I scraped the pan out with a spatula and ate every bit of the sauce after I'd finished portioning it out into freezer tubs.  There are top notes of coriander, lime and peanut, sweetness from the coconut milk and sugar and a beautiful deep warmth from the curry paste.  Speaking of freezer tubs, the recipe is specifically for freezing, and I would say that if you're making it to eat straight away, don't add the half a tin of water after the coconut milk.  But do if you're freezing, as freezing and thawing seems to reduce the sauce, which is a good thing as it intensifies the flavour.

Next, the recipe - as I say, incredibly easy.  The first step was to fry coriander stalks and spring onions in a couple of teaspoons of oil - I used sunflower.  They looked and smelt so fresh and pretty!

Then everything else went in, and it cooked for 15 minutes or so.

Easy as anything!