Quick and easy pumpkin curry

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.

March 2016...

...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

1/2 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.

Warming up winter with ginger spiced cookies

It’s winter, the rain gauge is about to overflow and there is no way I’m stepping foot outside the back door today let alone playing in the garden. So it’s the perfect time to play with some of my favourite ingredients: spices.

I mentioned their amazing benefits during my turmeric chai latte recipe post, as well as my guest blog for Mura Pathway to Wellness. Just to summarise, spices can be used to  lower blood sugar levels, reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer, treat headaches and toothaches, and are anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, antibacterial and high in antioxidants. 

This ginger spiced cookie recipe features cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamom, which are all known as warming spices because they raise the body’s temperature – just what you need when it’s cold and rainy. 

I’ve also used black molasses, which has its own range of health benefits thanks to a healthy dose of iron, calcium, magnesium, vitamin B6, and selenium. The molasses and coconut sugar lend a rich caramelly flavour to the cookies. If you don’t have any besan or tapioca flour handy, 2½ cups of normal plain flour or gluten free plain flour will do. The chia seeds will work fine whole or ground. Powdered ginger can be used instead of fresh.

Super unattractive when wet...

Perfect once baked.

Ginger spiced cookies

½ cup black molasses

½ cup coconut sugar

2 tablespoons margarine

1 cup besan flour

1½ cups tapioca flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp grated ginger

¼ tsp cinnamon

¹/₈ tsp ground cloves

¹/₈ tsp ground cardamom

1 tbs chia seeds

Preheat the oven to 160° Celsius fan forced. If you don’t have a silicon baking mat, lightly grease your baking tray.

Gently melt the molasses, sugar and marg together in a small saucepan on the stove, and let them cool slightly.

Put the chia seeds in a small bowl, add three tablespoons of water and set aside for five minutes.

Mix the flours, baking soda and spices in a bowl, and stir in the syrup and chia seeds. Use a dessert spoon to dollop the dough in small mounds on the tray. Don’t worry about shaping them, they’ll cook into a nice shape anyway.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until the house smells all lovely and gingery, allow to cool and enjoy with a pot of chai tea.

Roasted eggplant and garlic soup

I love how gardening continues to surprise me. Several weeks ago I sowed a green manure crop around my eggplants, deciding not to pull them up in case there was another eggplant or two left in them. The green manure crop all but grew over the top of them, so it was a fantastic surprise to peek under the leaves today and find literally dozens of huge eggplants, the biggest by far of the season.

 

I don’t think I’m alone on this late flush – there were head-sized eggplants for sale at the fantastic local Capital Region Farmers Market last weekend. With the basil putting on one last glorious flush of verdant growth and freshly cured garlic in the kitchen, I couldn’t resist creating an exceptionally creamy roasted eggplant and garlic soup that was oh so perfect on a cold almost-winter’s day.

The garlic quantity is only a rough suggestion – to me, the more garlic the better and you really can use up to a couple of bulbs. Roasting garlic transforms it into a savoury caramelly creamy yumminess so the garlic won’t overwhelm the dish. Dry-frying the spices isn’t essential but will awaken and improve their flavour. Basil’s delicate flavour can be destroyed by heat so add it to the pan just before blending. I’ve used cashews in the recipe but those with nut allergies can simply substitute sunflower seeds or a tin of coconut milk.

Roasted eggplant and garlic soup

Four large Lebanese eggplants, or 1-2 normal eggplants

Several cloves of garlic, skin on

¼ cup tahini

½ cup cashews

Olive oil

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

Handful of basil, roughly chopped, plus extra to garnish

The juice of half a lemon

Salt

Soak the cashews in a cup of water for a couple of hours, then blend with the water to make cashew milk – there's no need to strain.

Roast the whole eggplants and garlic cloves in a 180 degree fan forced oven (200 degree conventional oven) for 30 minutes or until soft. Once they are cool enough to touch, roughly chop the eggplants and squeeze the garlic out of its skins.

Put a clean, medium-sized saucepan on the stove over a medium heat. Add the spices and dry fry them for around 30 seconds. Add a slosh of olive oil, the eggplant and garlic, and stir to coat with the spices. Add the tahini and cook the mix for a couple of minutes, before adding the cashew milk and a cup of boiling water. 

Stir and gently heat the saucepan’s contents until they have just reached a simmer. Turn off the heat, add the basil and immediately blend the soup until smooth. Add the lemon juice and a good dose of salt – I’m talking a good 4-5 pinches or until it tastes exactly how you like it.

Garnish with basil and serve immediately.