We're continuing to experiment with curried dishes around here - this one was a moderate success.
(warning, what follows is a tangent!) Has anyone else noticed that the grocery stores seem to have suddenly given up on butternut squash in the natural state? It seems that all of a sudden, everyone's decided it's just too much work to peel one of those curvy cucurbita maxima (winter squash) so now you have to buy pre-peeled and pre-chunked squash in a plastic tub. We are going to have to look harder! For one thing, they're sometimes not as fresh, and for another, I hate throwing out one of those plastic containers when I could be composting the peel. At least one store around here is selling the chunks from a bin, like they do for salad, so you're only left with the plastic bag to contend with. But really, what was so terrible about the squash? Of course, I'm all for convenient food, so the pre-chopped stuff is on my good list for weeknight dinners, but I do resent not having the choice. There are a few nights when I'd welcome the opportunity to chop open one of those luscious squashes and scoop the seeds out of it's fresh, sunshine-orange center.
Well, now that we're done with that rant, back to our curry. We chopped our pre-chopped squash down to size and brought it to a simmer in chicken broth (veggie broth would work just as well). After about 20 minutes, it was getting tender, and I added about 2 TB of red curry paste. The squash cooked a little longer, and there was still a lot of stock in the pot. I didn't have a starchy side, so, wanted to absorb the liquid, we added 1/4 cup cous cous and let it sit in the pot, lid on, heat off, for 5 minutes.
The resulting side was tasty, but a little too thick and gloppy for my taste. Everyone ate it up, the kids loved the flavors, but next time, I think I will make the couscous on the side and serve the squash and liquid over it.
The flavors went really well together though, and I'm intrigued by some other possibilities - like a more traditional curry with roasted squash. Now, if only I could find a whole squash!
