Travel for me is all about getting to know the local people through their culture, arts and traditions, and their food. While I don’t think I am a foodie from what I understand to be the modern sense of that word… I don’t understand ingredients, can’t guess what’s in the pot unless told, and I can’t even tell if the salt is less or more… but I do love to eat.
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Over the last one year, when I travelled to a new town or city, I got a recipe back, especially if I really loved it and it reminded me of that trip and all associated memories. So I got back recipes of a soup from Chettinad, vegetable curries from Matheran, dipping sauces from Greece, a salad dressing from Jhadpoli, Maharashtra and there is my latest ‘Goan style pumpkin curry’!
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We had recently been Goa and visited a heritage hotel vivienda das palhacos and this was one of the vegetables for lunch. This is a popular non-vegetarian Goan dish adapted to vegetarians. We got pumpkins instead of prawns I think! It was just so delicious. The juicy pumpkin, softened by the cooking but still holding its own, coated in this wonderful green curry base and then coconut. Mind you, not coconut milk like Thai curries. All of these ingredients mix together to give one such texture in each mouthful, the soft pumpkin crumbles with the first bite, the smooth green spicy masala hits the tongue and then that crunchy sweet of the coconut arrives.
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The pumpkin pieces were juicy, the green curry coated them brilliantly and it went extremely well with rotis the pulav they served. I asked the chef who just gave me all the ingredients and I found it easy to make.
Ingredients:
1 kg pumpkin (red / orange) peeled and diced 1″
1/2 pod garlic… medium-sized cloves
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 cloves
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
2″ cinnamon
5 green chillies
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
4 tablespoons veg oil – I put half the quantity and it was fine
2 to 3 chopped onions
1 tablespoon sugar
1 grated coconut – half is enough, when I put a whole one, it was toooo much. also, I break the coconut into pieces and put it in the mixer-grinder till fine.
3 to 4 green cardamoms
1 tablespoon dry coriander seeds
3 tablespoons fresh coriander
Method:
blend all the above ingredients except onions and coconut.
saute the onions til golden brown and add the blended paste and cook for 15 mins
add 2 cups of hot water (or more) to the paste and cook the pumpkin together
once, 3/4th cooked, add the grated coconut and cook for 6 to 7 mins (avoid pumpkin getting mashed).
Serve with rice or roti and you’ll be licking your lips silly.
Bhavani is a traveler by choice, photographer by interest and writer by desire. She crafts tours at Audiocompass.In and blogs at merrytogoaround.com.