Mushroom and pumpkin red Thai curry

Ingredients:

  • 30g lemongrass
  • 30g ginger
  • 30g red onion
  • 30g garlic (about 6 cloves)
  • 60g red Romano pepper
  • some red chillies (depending how spicy they are)
  • 2 limes
  • 2 teaspoons cumin powder
  • 2 teaspoons coriander powder
  • 1 teaspoons turmeric powder
  • 1 teaspoons salt
  • 0.5 teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder
  • 60 twists of black pepper (about 2 teaspoons)
  • coconut oil
  • 400g can of coconut cream
  • 40g unrefined sugar (coconut sugar, jaggery, etc.)
  • pumpkin or butternut squash
  • Brown Shimeji mushrooms
  • wholegrain rice
  • 20g Thai basil

Methods:

  • Start boiling the rice.
  • First make the curry paste. Finely chop the lemongrass. Very roughly chop ginger (no need to peel it), red onion, garlic, Romano pepper and chillies. Place all of them in a bowl. Add zest of 2 limes and all the spices (cumin, coriander, turmeric, salt, chilli powder, black pepper). Handblender everything into a paste.
  • In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat a bit of coconut oil. Add the curry paste and fry for a couple of minutes, until it smells really good. Don’t let it stick to the bottom of the pot.
  • Add the coconut cream and unrefined sugar, and let it simmer.
  • Peal the pumpkin/squash, chop it into bite-sized cubes and add it to the curry.
  • Add in the mushrooms. Add water if needed.
  • Once the pumpkin/squash is tender, stir in half of the Thai basil and take off the heat. Stir, taste and adjust salt, acidity (lime juice), spiciness (chilli powder) and sweetness (unrefined sugar).
  • Serve with rice, sprinkled with basil and lime wedgies on the side.