Pumpkin curry (and secret clues)

This quirky recipe comes from my culinary past, pre-kids. I’m not normally one for getting cross-cultural with my cooking (I’ve been known to get quite agitated about people serving sour cream with tandoori chicken instead of yoghurt, for example) but somehow this dish – which pairs red curry with cous cous – works.

Friends and followers trying to cut down on their wheat and potato consumption could try using rice or even quinoa instead.

Recipe: Pumpkin & chickpea curry

1/3 jap pumpkin, cut into chunks
2 tbsp peanut or rice bran oil
1 cup cous cous
1 cup chicken stock
2 cloves garlic, crushed
6 green shallots, chopped
1 tbsp red curry paste
400g can chickpeas
400g can coconut milk
2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped

Preheat oven to 200°C (180°C fan-forced).

Toss pumpkin in 1 tablespoon oil and roast on baking paper on a baking tray until golden and tender.

Bring chicken stock to the boil in a small saucepan. Turn off heat, add cous cous and cover with a lid.

Heat remaining oil in a heavy based pan. Saute garlic and shallots until soft. Add red curry paste and fry over a medium heat for 1 minute. Add chickpeas and coconut milk and simmer five minutes. Stir through pumpkin.

Fluff cous cous with a fork.

Serve curry on cous cous, sprinkled with coriander.

MEANWHILE … OVER AT HOUSEGOESHOLLYWOOD …