Curry Spiced Pork, Couscous, and Green Beans

One of the many things I loved about high school and college was being steps away from many of my closest friends. I went to a boarding school for high school, so I spent a total of seven years living in a dorm and knowing all of the people in the rooms next to me. Needless to say, I went through a bit of an adjustment once I left campus and moved to New York City. For a while, the only other person I knew in my entire neighborhood was my roommate. That was almost four years ago at this point. I still don’t really know anyone in my building aside from my roommate, BUT at least now I have a couple of friends within walking distance who I can hang out with. One of the perks of this fact is I can spur of the moment see if someone is free and invite them over for dinner (or hopefully receive an invitation myself *hint-hint*).

Ingredients:

• pork cutlets
• olive oil
• salt
• black pepper
• curry powder
• turmeric powder
• paprika
• garlic powder
• orange bell pepper, diced
• chicken stock
• couscous
• lemons, zest and juice
• green beans, trimmed

Procedure:

1. Coat pork in oil and season with salt, pepper, curry powder, turmeric, paprika, and garlic powder. Let marinate while you heat up your grill pan. The pork cutlets are super thin and cook quickly. In order to get the crosshatches, rotate a quarter turn after a minute. Let cook for another minute before flipping over and repeating on the other side. (I’ll do the math for you—that’s four minutes total.)
2. For the couscous, start my sweating the bell pepper in olive oil in a saucepan. Season with salt and pepper. The ratio of liquid to couscous is roughly 2 to 1, similar to rice. With this knowledge and the amount you want to prepare in mind, add the appropriate amount of chicken stock to the saucepan. Bring to a boil and stir in couscous. Cover, remove from heat, and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and stir in lemon zest. Adjust seasoning as necessary.
3. The green beans are blanched in salted water until al dente. (In a professional kitchen you would also shock the vegetables in ice water to help them stay bright green and stop the cooking, but that isn’t necessary for the home cook.) In a large bowl, make a simple dressing by whisking together lemon juice and olive oil (ratio of 1:2 or 1:3) seasoned with salt and pepper. Toss the cooked green beans in the vinaigrette.

So…who’s having me over for dinner tonight?