This is a little recipe inspired by a thai curry dish served by one of my favourite Cape Town restaurants, Kitima's. To put it simply, their Salmon Penang with poached pear is to die for and I order it just about every time I go there for dinner. So about a year ago I decided to make up my own version by adding veggies to break the richness and topping the dish with fresh mint and basil to bring out all the fragrant flavours. I also alternate between using a penang and red curry paste- both are equally good to use! I'm one of those sweet and savoury nuts (think brie and onion marmalade, dates and bacon and salted caramel... you know here I'm going with this) and it's the salty salmon- sweet pear combination in this dish that has me making this dish over and over again.

I recommend coupling these magical thai flavours with a wooded chenin blanc or a glass of buttery chardonnay. I'm much more of a wine than a cocktail drinker, but do yourself a favour and try Kitima's Strawberry Rose martini infused with basil and clove; it must be the best cocktail I've ever tasted this side of the continent!

Salmon Pear Thai Curry (my version)

(Serves 6-8)

Ingredients:

800g- 1kg of fresh shashimi quality salmon cut into 125-150g pieces
2 x 400ml cans of quality coconut milk (Wellness Warehouse have a mean selection)
1 tablespoon coconut oil (if required)
2 x packet Penang Thai curry paste (or use red curry paste)
4-5 pears sliced into 8 pieces each
1-2 sliced red peppers (length ways and 1 cm wide)
150g green beans
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2.5 tablespoons fish sauce
A big handful of basil and mint
4 red chilli's
Salt to taste

Method

1. Scoop a table spoon or two of cream off the top of the coconut milk and mix in the curry paste in a heavy pan. Let it cook for 3-5 minutes until the oil seeps to the top. Tip: This is known as "cracking" the coconut milk which involves separating the cream into its oil, and then using the oil to fry up the spices. Coconut milk however is homogenised and therefore the oil can be lacking. To avoid this I recommend adding a tablespoon of coconut oil to the coconut cream to ensure a more fragrant thai curry flavour emerges.

2. Add the pear, red peppers and green bean and cook for 2 minutes, then add the coconut milk and stir the ingredients. Let this simmer for another 3 minutes.

3. Finally add the salmon so that is mostly covered by the coconut milk and then immediately turn down the heat and let the ingredients simmer in the coconut milk for another 5 minutes or so, until the pear has softened. Be careful to not over cook the salmon. You want to poach it in the coconut milk so that there is a slightly translucent pink colour in the very middle.

4. Tear up the basil and mint and stir into the curry just before serving and garnish with chopped red chilli's. You can use salt to taste if required but I usually find it's unnecessary.

5. Serve with Jasmine rice or cauli-rice lightly fried in coconut oil.