26.07.08: Indian pork vindaloo and crunchy salad

She dug out the pork vindaloo recipe, adding chunks of aubergine and an extra bottle of sauce to the pan of pork loin, plus more cinnamon and some star anise to the rice, to see us thru a lackadaisacal Saturday nite movie. Wielding the KTOTY*, she stripped a carrot for extra crunch in a salad of pear, leaves, beetroot, and toasted pumpkin seeds, all doused with an improvised dressing of juice d'orange, olive oil, fresh coriander, ginger, one mashed garlic clove, white wine vinegar, and salt-n-pepa.

HE SAYS: Pork and Indian are not two words that normally get along but this recipe brings them harmoniously together on one plate. The extra jar o' sauce helped make it a joy to mix in with the fragrant rice and with the new chutney atop of the curry mountain it was another Saturday nite taste sensation. The salad was also a hit with lots of sweet, tart, crunchy things going on, I was almost in Nirvana but stopped short to watch the movie.

SHE SAYS: Dressing was a dee-lite; would add more ginger but this time I only had a tiny stump in the fridge. Don't think I can get enough of shredded carrot this summer - juicy, sweet, and not too much work for the molars. Vindaloo def. benefits from extra sauce, but man, you need to cook it nearly three times as long as the recipe states.

*KTOTY = kitchen tool of the year