Pumpkin

We ate another of my pumpkins last night, in a kind of yellow curry with chickpeas from Tender, volume 1, by Nigel Slater. OK, I messed with the recipe because we didn't have yellow mustard seeds, so you can see my substitute black mustard seeds speckling the curry instead, and we didn't use dried chickpeas because I can't plan ahead like that. Here is our adaptation of his recipe.

To serve 2
1 tin chickpeas, drained
1 medium onion, chopped
vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic
a piece of ginger about 2x2x2cm
1 stalk lemongrass, outer leaves removed
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp turmeric
3 green cardamoms
1 hot red chilli (we only had dried chilli flakes - about half a tsp)
a small pumpkin (he suggests about 250g prepared weight)
150ml vegetable stock
half a can of coconut milk (we used reduced fat)
half a tbsp black mustard seeds (he uses yellow)
coriander leaves - a small handful
a lime (we only had lemon!)

Saute the onions in a deep, lidded saute pan or casserole over a low heat until soft. Make a paste (using a food processor or chopping finely with a knife) of the ginger, garlic and lemongrass, then add to the onions. Crack open the cardamom pods and crush the seeds in a pestle and mortar; chop the chilli and then add both to the pan alongside the ground coriander and turmeric. Meanwhile, prepare the pumpkin, peeling and cutting it into bite-sized pieces, then add to the onion mix with the chickpeas and the stock (don't worry if it looks a bit dry - the pumpkin will give off water as it cooks. You may want a drop more water/stock during cooking). Cover with a lid and simmer.

At this point, we put some basmati rice on to cook. The pumpkin takes about 15-20 minutes to cook.

When the pumpkin is tender and your rice is ready, stir in the coconut milk and continue to simmer. Taste and adjust the salt if necessary (we used Marigold vegetable stock, which was salty enough without needing to add any more). In a separate frying pan, heat the mustard seeds in a splash of oil until they start to pop. Add this to the pumpkin, along with the coriander leaves. Serve with rice and lime to squeeze over.