When I brought this Pumpkin home, I thought there are so many things you can do with pumpkins. Yes sure, you can carve them into some ghostly looking creatures or you can paint them with your favourite faces and decorate your home. I did not do any of them. No prizes for guessing what i did with it. Yes, I curried it:) A typical south indian curry with a sweet western Pumpkin is all i could think of. May be the foodie in me!
For this curry, I just used half of the pumkin, since I was not so sure about the outcome! I thought it is better to be careful that it ending up in the bin;)I used the basic masala used in our cooking. Some roasted spices ground with coconut and this boiled with chopped pumpkin. The curry had a sweet spicy taste, with the sweet pumpkin pieces but it made an awesome combo. It tasted even better the next day! This entry is on its way to Think Spice-Think Coriander seeds event, started by Sunita and hosted by dear friend Priya.
This is also going to AFAM-Pumpkin hosted by Madhuram, an event started by Maheswari.
Ingredients:
1/2 medium sized pumpkin
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tbsp fresh/frozen grated coconut
2 tsp oil
1 big onion chopped finely
salt to taste
Spices for roasting:
3/4 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp Jeera/cumin seeds
6-7 dried red chillies
1/4 tsp methi/fenugreek seeds
a few curry leaves
1 tsp oil
Recipe:
Scrape the skin of the pumpkin, remove the seeds and chop into 1 inch pieces. Add turmeric powder and salt to 1 cup water and boil the pumpkin pieces in this water till just done. Be sure not to over do or else they become mushy. It took me 6-7 mins. You can also do this in a microwave.
In the meantime, heat oil (very little) in a pan. Roast the spices (coriander seeds, cumin seeds, methi seeds and red chillies) along with some curry leaves on medium flame for 4-5 mins, till you get a nice aroma.
Grind this along with grated coconut to a smooth paste adding less water.
Heat some oil in a pan, saute the onion till they turn translucent. Add the ground paste, boiled pumpkin along with the water used for boiling. Adjust salt and bring to a boil. Boil on medium flame for 3-4 mins till raw smell of masala is gone.
Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with Rice or Indian bread
Note: Do not discard the pumpkin seeds. They taste great when roasted and are healthy too!
Serves: 3
Time Required: 30 mins
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