Pumpkin Lovin' Recipe: Pumpkin Curry

Often you don't want to do the typical pumpkin recipes anymore… You want something different…
What about a lovely indian pumpkin curry!?

Oh I know, that sounds complicated!!!

It sounds as if you had to go to a special Asian store and buy relatively big bags of many different spices and leaves and seeds just to achieve the curry flavor. Spices that you might never use again (or use just very rarely anyway) and that you will have to trash at a certain point…
The thing is: I love cooking curry! But I hate having millions of bags of spices and experimenting with them like an alchemist only to find out at the end that my concoction doesn't taste anything like what I imagined in my head when I started cooking…

So I resort to a shortcut.
(Don't tell my indian family :-o)

But believe me, this shortcut will still make your food unique, will impress your dinner-guests and I can guarantee you, no one will leave complaining… not even Indian guests (so far at least :-))
My shortcut is to buy a few key spice-mixtures from the Asian / Indian store. I usually opt for the different types of Shan Masalas (you can find their official website here but you can buy these spice mixtures on amazon too or just go to an Indian store and have a look at them, smell them and buy the ones that impress you most :-)).
Don't get me wrong: I never follow the recipes listed on these spice mixtures!!!
Besides them being too spicy and strong for me, I also like to give them my own twist and keep it my secret how I mix and match them with my own recipes. A secret that I am more than happy to share with you :-)

For this particular recipe I use a combination of Aaloo Bhaji Masala which is intended for a specific potato dish and the Vegetable Curry Masala which, as the name suggests, goes well with veggies. You can easily use only of the two, but in my opinion, the combination gives the dish an original twist. Just have fun with it and at first add less masala and keep tasting and adding until you achieve the taste you like best! :-)

[picture coming soon]

Ingredients:
1/4 big onion

1 tsp ginger paste (or chopped fresh ginger root - which makes the ginger taste more prominent)

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp sweet red paprika powder

1 - 2 tsp of Aaloo Bhaji Masala

1 - 2 tsp of Vegetable Curry Masala 

(or just use of the two masalas)

1/4 pumpkin

2 russet potatoes

2 carrots

2 cups water

optional: 

- 1 chopped tomato

- 1 can of chickpeas

- 1/2 cup sour cream (or yoghurt) 

Directions:

1. On a little bit of oil sauté finely chopped onions and fresh ginger root (or ginger paste) till onions are golden. Add turmeric and paprika and one or both of the Shan Masalas. 

2. If you choose to add a tomato, you would do that now: Chop it finely and add to the onion and spices. The idea is that the tomato should dissolve/disappear into the sauce so it should have plenty of time to cook. 

3. Chop the pumpkin, potatoes and carrots into cubes. To try to keep them all cooked evenly you should add the carrots first, let them simmer with the onion and spices for a few minutes, then add the potatoes and only after a few minutes add the pumpkin. (Pumpkin cooks first and carrots last - but I actually don't mind the pumpkin becoming part of the sauce rather than actual defined cubes…)

4. If you choose to add chickpeas to your curry, you would do that as a very last addition. As the canned chickpeas are already precooked, they don't need actual cooking time, rather than time to absorb the spices… Don't hesitate to add the water of the chickpea-can - that too is filled with taste and goodness :-)
5. Add about two cups of water and let the curry simmer till carrots are soft - about for half an hour. 

6. I like to add some sour cream or yoghurt towards the end (about 10 min before I would switch off the stove) to add a little creaminess to the curry. 

7. As a side you can serve the classic Basmati rice and/or Naan bread. To add a little crunch to the dish you can serve some Poppadoms with it too. And if you need an extra spice, you can serve some indian mango or lime pickle as well. 

ENJOY! ... and let me know how you liked it… :-)