A sweet but spicy buttery butternut squash curry with bits of crunchy rice, crumbly paneer cheese and hazlenuts. It’s heaven. Found this one in @will_bowlby cookbook @kricketlondon but substituted pumpkin for what we already had in the fridge. Sam and I stumbled across Kricket one afternoon in Brixton last summer and fell in love. We’ve tried a few recipes from the cookbook but this one has been the most successful. We’ve got the leftover sauce in the freezer ready to try with some chicken thighs next time. Can’t wait!
INGREDIENTS
1 small pumpkin / squash
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
1tsp kashmiri red chilli powder
generous pinch of sea salt
100g wild rice
100g paneer cheese, crumbled
coriander to garnish
2 tbsp vegetable oil
4 green cardamon pods
2 black cardamon pods
4 cloves
2 fresh Indian base leaves
4 tbsp ginger and garlic paste
2 tbsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
2 green chillis, sliced in half
800g tinned tomatoes
100g double cream
100g unsalted butter
1tbsp garam masala
handful of dried fenugreek leaves
pinch caster sugar
sea salt
100g hazlenuts
25g sesame seeds
1 tsp chaat masala
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 160'C (320'F/Gas 3)
Halve the pumpkin or squash, scoop out the seeds and slice the flesh into 8 wedges. Put the wedges in a roasting pan and coat with the oil, cumin, turmeric, chilli powder and salt. Roast in the oven for around 30 minutes. You want the pumpkin to be only just cooked, as it gets a further grilling before being served.
Whist the pumpkin is roasting start making the sauce. Heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium heat, add the whole spices and allow them to infuse into the oil for 30 seconds or so before adding the ginger and garlic paste, chilli powder and green chillis. Cook for a couple of minutes then turn the heat down to medium low, add the tomatoes, cover and cook for about 30 minutes until the sauce has reduced by one third. Remove the whole spices, add the cream, butter, garam masala and fenugreek leaves. Season to taste with sugar and salt.
To make the puffed rice, cover the bottom of a heavy based pan with vegetable oil and heat until very hot. Add the rice and stir for a few minutes until it puffs up and turns golden, drain on kitchen paper.
To make the hazlenut crumb toast the nuts and sesame seeds until golden in a dry frying pan. Blitz into a fine powder with the chaat masala in a food processor.
Grill the pumpkin for a few minutes on each side until the slices get a little colour and charred.
To serve, spoon the sauce into 4 bowls, arrange 2 wedges on top of the sauce, top with crumbled paneer cheese, hazelnut crumb, puffed rice and garnish with some coriander leaves.