Curry channa, chowrai bhajee and butternut squash..

 

 

A foodie Facebook friend shared a recipe for Butternut Squash and Chickpea curry and I bookmarked. 

Not sure if I would ever make it as I wondered why would I curry butternut squash which tastes nice "just so' but curious as the recipe invoked 'Thai' curry and the lemon grass and coconut milk mix up.

And as more oil being produced in Guyana, I have not seen butternut squash in the market so it was like save and keep.

I got one at the oil country prices just around Christmas and but it was still lower than the supermarket so I chopped up and put in the freezer.

I went back to the recipe, not sure , and went looking to see if is true that you could curry butternut squash.. and  Google showed a whole set of versions.

 I never cooked with lemon grass and I think the lemon grass we use for tea in Guyana might be different from what is used in the pictures. 

The recipe asked to 'mince the lemon grass' but the grass did not take cutting. Another chef said to 'freeze the lemon grass' then use it. Would bits of grass in the curry taste the same as say bits of other herbs?

 I decided.. throw the lemon grass  in the blender, with some of the coconut and water which I had set to make the coconut milk. Mixing up the Thai and Indian where they use coconut in the masala.

Added ginger and the blended mixture smelled nice , a base for the 'curry paste'

I nervously added garam masala, some turmeric and garlic.. wondering if the nice sweetness of the butternut squash would be lost away in all of this. 

My cousin in Essequibo had given some of the nice yellow 'seasoning pepper' which smell up everything and which hot. I put two.. not sure.

Hot up the oil, put some whole geera and onions. Then throw in the curry paste and said to hell with it, put some elaichi pods and cloves.. I sneezed as things burst and then the whole house smell up nice.

Chunkay the channa and the butternut squash. 

Put enough coconut milk and leave to simmer.

The woman who sells the greens from her garden fertilized by cow mole from Lethem did not have spinach. She had chowrai bhajee.

I kept testing the squash to see when it was 'nearly cooked' so as to put in the bhajee but then thing start melting.

Put in the chowrai bhajee.. and some more coconut milk.. let it all cook up .. a few minutes.

Smell all over.

Go and eat the thing.. creamy, the squash nice, it was not too spicy.. coconut milk is like that.. .. butternut squash still nice , separate in a way from the curry channa.

Might have to try with a nice pumpkin next time and see if I don't get butternut squash again.