It’s a sunny winter’s day, the kind that might make you
think of Spring if it weren’t for the icy wind howling around the house. It’s
the perfect day to cook up a quick pumpkin curry and curl up on the couch with
the cat and a good book (who am I kidding, Netflix it is).
The wonderful thing about pumpkins is that they are planted
in Spring, grow prolifically through Summer, are harvested in Autumn and will
store beautifully right through Winter to be cooked up in an array of
comforting meals.
Once the fear of frost has passed, find a sunny spot and sow
a couple of seeds direct into a pile of really good soil, enriched with compost
or old manure. If both seeds germinate and emerge as little seedlings, pull out
the weaker of the two. You need a bit of space to grow a pumpkin plant but they
will grow beautifully up a fence or trellis if you don’t have a decent patch of
ground.
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| March 2016... |
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| ...April 2016 |
If left untamed, the pumpkin plant will happily rampage across
the yard, with glorious large flowers that bees love. You
can pick (and cook) the flowers to reduce the number of pumpkins so the plant
can focus its energy on the few you keep – I didn’t last summer and got 13
beautiful large pumpkins from two plants. Harvest the pumpkins around the time
of the first frost, keeping several centimetres of stalk attached to the
pumpkin, which will help them last longer.
There’s a slight trick to this pumpkin curry – cook it until
the pumpkin is tender, then for a few minutes more but without turning the
pumpkin to mush. This really enhances the sauce, as it caramelises a little,
giving it almost a satay flavour. You won’t need to add much (or any) salt
because of the lovely savoury flavour provided by the spices. An alternative to
the coconut cream and stock is to just use ¾ cup of coconut milk instead. The
curry goes great with rice but the nuttiness of quinoa (cooked in equal parts
coconut cream and water) really complements the creaminess of the curry.
Pumpkin curry
Makes 2 serves
1 tsp chilli powder, or 1 small fresh chilli
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 bay leaf
1 tbs avocado oil or another vegetable oil
350g pumpkin
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
1/2 cup coconut cream
1/4 cup vegie stock
Nutmeg and parsley to garnish
Dry fry your ground spices and bay leaf in a medium saucepan
over a moderate heat for 30 seconds, then add the oil, the pumpkin and the
ginger and stir for a few minutes. Add the coconut cream and
stock, cover and gently simmer for 15 minutes or until the pumpkin is tender. Season
to taste and remove the bay leaf. Garnish the curry with a sprinkle of finely
chopped parsley and a little freshly grated nutmeg and serve.
