Garden of Eden: South African Getaway

A couple of weeks ago, Chris was in the mood for something exotic. For some reason, he was motivated enough to look for recipes. He came up with South African Beef Curry. That was a no brainer. Sounds delish! I was planning out what I needed when Chris came down with a stomach virus (we thought it was food poisoning at the time). Beef Curry is probably not the best food for such a situation. So we waited. A few weeks after that, making sure the stomach coast was clear, we planned it again. Chris even did the grocery shopping. I'm about to dedicate an entire line of this post to that statement, because it's such a big deal.

CHRIS DID THE GROCERY SHOPPING.

Wow. That looks so cool. And that it's a true statement is super cool.

The curry recipe isn't so different from Indian curries. It does have mustard seed which may be different. The biggest difference is in the toppings. There was banana, coconut, mango chutney, and cucumber yogurt sauce (I used zucchini instead because I had it). Yummy! Chris likes spicy foods and I don't so I left out the jalapenos from the recipe, but he bought a Mongolian Hot Sauce to drip on to his plate. You do need to buy good beef, otherwise it just won't work, no matter how good the topping flavors are. We got an average beef but I would like to try it again with an excellent grade. Where our meal was really good, it could be amazing with better beef. And the truly South African recipe would use lamb, which I would definitely do when I feel like spending the extra moolah.

To accompany our meal, Chris picked up a bottle of South African wine. He really is a thoughtful guy - I suppose he's a keeper! Little did he know that the wine that he bought, a red wine from the Goats Do Roam vineyard, is the same vineyard that I visited when I took a vacation there in 2006. How cool! We've actually had the wine here in the States before but since Chris wasn't with me on the trip, he didn't remember having it (I normally don't remember wines I've had either). It was a nice touch to a nice meal - one we'll be repeating.

Recipe coming soon.

Beef curry over brown rice, zucchini yogurt sauce, mango chutney, coconut and banana toppings and a big ol' glass of wine. Nevermind the walnuts at the top of the picture. That's not dinner related, we just don't know how to put things away in this house.