Let me begin by stating the obvious. Bengali pumpkin curry is not exactly up my alley. Even though I love cooking Indian, I generally venture out to something more adventurous. No, don’t get me wrong, Indian is just as adventurous as anything else. But, I tend to leave it to mom to work out her magic on curries most of the time. So, this is also one of her expeditions more than mine.
We generally chomp on pumpkin as kaddu ki sabzi with poori. Or Kaddu ke Chilke too make for a very interesting dish.
This was a first with pumpkin curry for us, paired with Bedmi poori instead of the more traditional choice. But you can obviously pair it up with the Bengali poori – Luchi, recipe here.
Ingredients for Potato and Pumpkin Curry – Serves 4 to 5
- Pumpkin – 750g, peeled and diced
- Potatoes – 3, medium-sized, diced
- Tomatoes – 4, medium-sized
- Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
- Coriander powder – 1 tsp
- Amchur/ Dried Mango powder – 1/2 tsp
- Panch Phoran – 1 tsp each of ajwain (carom seeds), methi seeds (fenugreek seeds), jeera (cumin seeds), sarson daana (mustard seeds) and kalaunji seeds (black caraway seeds)
- Salt – to taste
- Mustard oil – 2 tbsp
Method
- Wash the tomatoes. Chop into quarters and make a smooth puree in a mixer by adding 1/4 cup of water.
- Heat the mustard oil in a pan, add the Panch Phoran mixture and let it crackle until fragrant for a minute or two.
- Add the tomato puree to the pan and mix well. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Add amchur powder, chilli powder and coriander powder to the mixture and mix well.
- Transfer the diced potatoes and pumpkin into the pan.
- Season with salt and mix and cook for 10-15 minutes on medium-high heat until the masala has cooked completely. You would know as it starts to release the oil.
- Transfer this to a pressure cooker, add 1-1/2 cups of water and cook for 1 whistle. Let the pressure release normally.
- And chomp with your choice of fried pooris!