Butternut Squash Curry

Yesterday afternoon, I was going thru my refrigerator to see what I could have for lunch and I had only mango dal. I knew I did not have many veggies in my crisper and was going thru my freezer to see if I had any vegetables I could use up to make a subzi. Then I saw this butternut squash, helpless staring at me and begging me to cook it as soon as possible. I had this squash in my pantry for over six weeks! I bought it month and half ago, before last marathon to make butternut squash soup. Cutting the squash is such a pain that I kept on postponing it. For the last marathon, I eventually bought some diced butternut squash and made the soup. Yesterday was its lucky day! Since I had some leftover dal in the fridge, I made some fry/curry with the squash.

Total Time: 30 minutes
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 1 – 1 ½ tbsp. Oil
• ½ medium sized Onion sliced
• ½ tsp. Cumin / Jeera
• 2 tsp. Ginger Garlic paste
• 2 – 3 tsp. Coriander Powder
• 1 ½ tsp. Chili Powder (adjust to taste)
• Salt to taste
• Turmeric
• 1 small to medium sized Butternut Squash diced or 3 ½ cups diced Butternut Squash
• 2 medium Green Chilies (the ones from the Indian store, mirchi bajji chilies)
• 1 tbsp. dry roasted Sesame Seeds to be powdered
• Cilantro to garnish

Preparation:

• Peel the squash using a knife. Peeling it with a peeler doesn’t work. The skin of the squash is very thick and hard to peel with a peeler.
• Cut the squash into two cylinders. Then cut open each cylinder and scoop out the seeds and the fibrous stuff from the squash. Dice it into 1 ½” cubes. This will take about 10 minutes.
• Heat oil in skillet and add cumin and onion. Cook the onions until light brown.
• Add ginger garlic paste and sauté for a minute or two.
• Add coriander powder, chili powder, salt, turmeric and mix well.
• Add diced squash; stir the pieces to coat the spice. Cover and cook for 3-5 minutes until the squash is lightly roasted in the spices. Add about ¼ cup water, cover and cook until the squash is tender. It cooks very fast.
• Remove cover, add sesame seed powder, green chilies and sauté until done.
• Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with rice. I noticed that it tasted very good when hot and was not as good when cold. So, serve the curry hot.

This day in 2008 – Poni/Popu Annam