Coconut Pumpkin Curry
This Thai style quick curry is ready in under 30 minutes. Pumpkin is one of my vegetables in curry as it breaks down to thicken the sauce making it unctuous and filling.
I tend to use prefer Kabocha or Asian pumpkin for curries as I find them more savoury, however, the orange American style pumpkin also works fine for this pumpkin curry recipe.
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to improve my Thai-style curries and I have been told again and again by Thai cooks that the secret is a fresh paste. Once you get used to making your own curry paste it is actually very easy and you can whip up a curry in very little time. As you get more confident, you can adjust the paste to your preference.
A food processor or spice grinder is absolutely essential here - I use a Cuisinart Spice grinder for small-batch pastes like this or a Magimix for larger batches if I want to store some in the fridge for a few days. You could go traditional and use a pestle and mortar but it will take a very long time.
You can make this curry with any protein you choose but I use prawns as they pair well with pumpkin and they cook in about 5 minutes. Switch the prawns out for tofu and omit the prawn paste in the paste and this recipe becomes vegan. I like a crunchy green vegetable in this curry so I use okra but if you cannot find any in your area then green beans work well too.
Coconut Pumpkin Curry
Serves 4
Ingredients
400g pumpkin flesh
200ml coconut milk
8- 12 prawns or shrimp per person
12 okra
2 tablespoons of coconut oil for frying
250ml chicken/fish stock or water
A tablespoon of sugar or equivalent in hard palm sugar
A tablespoon of fish sauce
Juice of half a lime
Curry Paste
2 stalks of lemongrass, whites-only with outer layer removed
A thumb of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped.
1 kaffir lime leaf, shredded
1 dried chili, soaked in water
1 tablespoon tamarind paste
1 tablespoon of prawn paste (optional) or half a teaspoon of salt
2 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
2 small shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
Method
Steam the pumpkin meat for 15 minutes - I use a MielesSteam oven but any stove-top steamer will work. If you do not have time to peel the raw pumpkin then put the pumpkin in the steamer skin intact. Once cooked, you will easily be able to prise the flesh away from the pumpkin. You could go even easier on yourself and just use frozen pre-chopped pumpkin flesh, which would work fine with the strong curry flavours.
Prepare the curry paste by blitzing all the ingredients in a food processor until smooth.
In a wok or high sided pan, heat some coconut oil. Add the paste and stir constantly for about 3 minutes to release the aromas without letting it burn. Pour in the stock or water, letting it come to a boil.
Add the whole okra or green beans to the steamer with the pumpkin for the last 3 minutes so that they are still green and crunch. Remove and chop okra only after cooking (otherwise, they will turn slimy) and set aside.
Add the coconut milk to the curry and reduce the heat. Coconut milk can split on a high heat so it’s important to reduce the heat but I usually also keep a little aside so that I can rescue the curry if needed. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the cooked pumpkin flesh to the curry and watch it quickly thicken up. You wan a rough uneven texture with some lump and some blended through. Cook the raw prawns in the curry so that they go from translucent to pink. Season with fish sauce and lime juice, adjusting to your taste. Add the okra and serve immediately.