Curried Pumpkin

When I go to my regular Indian restaurant, I will take a peek at their dishes and hope that they have pumpkin. Most of the time they do. Sometimes the pumpkin is in chunks, sometimes a mixture of chunk and mush and at other times it is all mushy.

I prefer the pumpkin in chunks, where there is still some bite but I don't mind even if it was all mushy. The important thing is that the curried pumpkin tastes awesome.

Somehow, I cannot resist pumpkin whichever way it is cooked. I think pumpkin is wonderful. It is also great baked in cheesecake, butter cake and pies. 

I found this recipe in the book Indian Vegetarian Cooking by chef Devagi Sanmugam. Yes, I bought that little book when I was all fired up about becoming vegetarian. Well, you know how that turned out. But it's all good. There are many good recipes which I will try.

I deviated a little bit from the recipe in terms of the method. Other than that, I followed all the ingredients except for the fresh chili. I forgot to buy green chilies and used red instead. And oh, I also left out sugar and tamarind as I felt that they were not necessary for me.

The curried pumpkin turned out really well, but in future I will reduce the amount of turmeric powder as I found it too strong. I would also increase the amount of onions. These are reflected in the recipe below.

My curried pumpkin was on the hot side, so I guess I will have to reduce the chili powder too. Other than that, I love this curried pumpkin. Though it's not the same as the one at the restaurant, it was still pretty good in its own right.

Curried Pumpkin

Recipe source : Adapted from Indian Vegetarian Cooking (page 58)

Ingredients :

- 500g pumpkin, peeled, seeds removed and cut into 2cm cubes

- 2 dried chilies cut into 3cm pieces

- 2 sprigs curry leaves

- 2 big onions, sliced

- 2 green chilies (or red), cut into 2cm pieces

- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds

- 1 tsp fennel seeds

- 1/4 tsp fenugreek

- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder

- 1/2 tsp chili powder

- 1 tsp cumin powder

- 1 tsp salt or to taste

- 200ml water (for simmering the pumpkins, you may need more or less)

Method :

1. Heat oil in wok and fry dried chilies until they turn brown. Remove and set aside.

2. Add curry leaves to the oil and fry briefly until sizzling stops. Remove and set aside.

3. Fry mustard seed, fennel seed and fenugreek.

4. Add sliced onions and green chilies. Saute until onion turns golden brown.

5. Add pumpkin, water, chili, cumin and turmeric powder and salt.

6. Cover and cook over medium flame until the pumpkin is tender.

7. Continue to cook uncovered until liquids are evaporated.

8. Add the fried chilies and curry leaves and give a final stir.

This post is also linked to Cook-Your-Books #28 hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours.