Last spring, J chose a few seed packets at the farm store. He picked Red Globe onions, "Peaches & Cream" corn and Cinderella pumpkins. His pumpkin vine yielded two biggish gourds, which he obsessed about all season. I'm not saying he tended them, necessarily, but he asked constantly whether he could pick them.
Finally in October we picked one and I cut it open; the flesh was over four inches thick. I sliced it in chunks, baked the pieces and whipped them in the Kitchenaid.
Of course, J wanted pie, or something baked with warm spices, but I, stubborn and uncooperative mother that I am, made Curried Pumpkin Soup. It had at least one warm spice in it - coriander. Click here for the recipe.
I'm a little preoccupied with curry right now. I've always got loads of garlic on hand, a ginger root in the freezer, coconut milk & powdered curry in the cupboard and green & red curry paste in the fridge. The ingredients are so good for you, they taste great, and we enjoy spicy food. However, you can leave out the hot stuff if you like.
I had a half-gallon of pumpkin left, so this week I did a chicken/pumpkin curry over basmati rice. I found a shrimp curry recipe (click here) and converted it for chicken, using the root vegetables I have on hand. Our local Thai restaurant prepares curries with potatoes, so I tried that. The boys ate it up.
A couple tips if you want to try these recipes: I buy lemons & limes at Costco, zest them, juice them, and freeze the lot. That way I always have some on hand for recipes. (Often, Thai curries require lime juice.) Also, the recipes call for canned pumpkin, which is more concentrated than the fresh. I found that I needed to double the flavorings & spices with the fresh pumpkin.
The chicken curry, though, was especially good with some of this stuff:
I was excited to harvest the second pumpkin, but before I could, the boys smashed it. I was disappointed, but they were having so much fun that I couldn't yell at them for it.
That was such a lie. I totally yelled at them.
