I picked up a 20-pound French pumpkin (they’re called cinderella pumpkins, photo here) at the farmers market a few weeks back, and it was time to deal with it. Man does a 20-pound pumpkin contain a lot of meat! After roasting the entire thing in sections, on four baking sheets, we had a boatload of tasty roasted pumpkin. Pureed some and froze, ate some as a side dish with chopped herbs, gave some away, and … made a beautiful pumpkin curry out of the rest.
Had metric quantities of young ginger, fresh turmeric, and galangal leftover from last week’s video sessions (more on these to come), so those got added to the pot, along with a huge onion, chopped apple, a few carrots, and the usual curry suspects: freshly ground coriander, cardamom, star anise, and curry powder, all sauteed in ghee (also from last week’s video on making ghee). What a nice smelling house this combo produces! To that I added a can of diced tomatoes, about three cups of pureed pumpkin, and, toward the end, about 1/2 cup of coconut milk. It is THE mid-autumn food. Served with rice and pickles (daikon and persimmon — that pickle got a video, too!).
Made at least a gallon, half of which I’ll freeze. Going into a slight “fill up the freezer” mode, in prep for the arrival of our new family member! Baby daughter arrives in about three weeks, yikes!!
Congratulations for the new arrival!!! What about the persimmon pickles? What type of persimmon do you use?
Grazie! Fuyu, very firm. Video to come soon!
That's what I feared…those are quite hard to find around this area. Looking forward to watching the video!
Eric, the photo link isn’t working.
This is the perfect post Halloween pumpkin sacrifice. Somehow that curry/pickle/rice looks like the perfect meal on a cold autumn day.
Your pumpkin curry sounds delicious! How's the sweetness level of the cinderella?
Congratulations on the baby! Best of luck to your family! That kid is in for some really good eats!
Thank you! The cinderella pumpkin is actually NOT so sweet, which is a bonus. I really like it….. baby might too!
this was SO YUM!!!!! did not puree pumpkin after roasting it, but just dumped it in with the other stuff and hand-blended a bit so everything was chunky. i used a butternut, a small sugar pie pumpkin, and an acorn squash, 'cause that's what we had, and served it with kuchela (trinidadian mango pickle) and my husband's friend neela's mom's garlic chutney. the color wasn't as pretty as yours (i said to my husband "sorry i puked on your plate!" as i put it down in front of him) but DAYUM it was tasty. it wasn't QUITE as puke-looking after i sprinkled chopped parsley on the top. and did i mention SO YUM?
congrats on the baby!
should i know what galangal is??? it is a crucial ingredient???? any substitutes???
i love curry and this one looks great… i am about ready to dig up my tumeric and see how much is under there… the leaves are huge…
Galangal = thai ginger — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galangal You could substitute regular shoga for it, but it's worth tracking down. It's not that hard to find in big cities in Japan, I'd be surprised if Nagasaki doesn't have a small Thai market somewhere?
Marjorie — your version sounds great. But at the dinner table with your husband, you might refrain from triggering the hurl reflex!!