GIn and Tonic, thai seafood curry, and immense gratitude to a chef son!

Now I am not alcoholic, a heavy drinker, a regular drinker or even a truly social drinker, but when American colleagues call conference calls at 9:30 their time on a Friday, (that translates to 4:30 our time) and want to discuss heavy issues like how many patients are likely to still be around in 12 twelve months time, I am driven to drink! I got home on Friday, kicked off my shoes, poured myself a G&T, flopped on the couch, put my feet up on the coffee table and announced that I was going to make misuse of Son's kind nature and leave supper to him, with me shouting encouragement from my seat.

Nothing extraordinary about this meal, just a red Thai curry served on leftover rice and lentils from last night. I must mention that since I had the rice and lentil mix at my dear Kiwi friend's home one dinner, I have been hooked. I hardly ever make plain rice now. The lentils give the rice flavour and makes it look pretty, a bit like freckles on a redhead school kid.

I have to find a good source of fresh fish locally. Neither my local Spar nor Checkers has a fresh fish counter and I loathe fish in a box that has been individually wrapped in blue plastic. Frozen fish collapses into tough tasteless meat and a whole lot of fluid that has nowhere to go and forms smelly insipid rivers on your plate even when you have tried to get rid of it before serving. UGH! If I am to take the trouble to cook fish, then I want to use firm fresh fish that is likely to hold its own in the cooking process. So I did not buy fish for this recipe because I could not find any. Instead, Son used half the bag of seafood mix we have had in the freezer which has almost become a paleantological find its been there so long.

And it worked. We had a really tasty supper, with mussels and tentacles and bits of unidentifiable ocean going ex-life all tasting delicious in the creamy coconut based red curry sauce. The recipe called for 30-60 ml of red curry paste. Son was thinking aloud saying he was going to use 30 ml, and I interrupted by suggesting the median amount of 45 ml. Red curry paste is HOT! He should have gone with his instincts and not listened to his decaying mother as she sipped G&T like Eve's Madam's mother.