Indian pumpkin and spinach curry served with chapatis
Ingredients
For the curry you need:
spices and herbs
10 dried curry leaves
2 chillies (the hot ones)
1 T mustard seeds
1 T coriander seeds
1 T cumin
1 T fennel seeds
2 cloves
1 star anise
1 small piece of cinnamon
2 medium onions
3 large tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
1 piece of ginger (2 cm)
1 small pumpkin (1/2 if it is a bigger one)
1 bag of frozen spinach
salt, pepper
For the chapatis you need:
250 g wheat flour
2 T vegetable oil
water (the amount depends on the type of wheat you use. You’ll feel how much you need while kneading…)
salt, pepper
Preparation:
1// Prepare the dough for the chapatis. Mix flour, a pinch of salt and the vegetable oil in a bowl. Slowly pour some cold water in, keep mixing and kneading until you get a quite soft dough. It should be slightly softer and wetter than a Pizza dough. If your dough is to firm, the chapatis will become dry and tough. Form a ball out of the dough, cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let the dough rest.
2// Grind your spices and herbs with a mortar and pestle, sparing a t of mustard seeds and cumin.
3// Chop onions, garlic and ginger and set them aside.
4// Coarsely chop the tomatoes and cut the pumpkin in bite-sized pieces.
5// Heat some vegetable oil in a pan (medium heat). Pour in the spared 1 t of mustard seeds and cumin. When they start to pop, put in the onion/garlic/ginger mixture and gently fry it until translucent, adding also the spice mixture. After some minutes, add the chopped tomatoes. Let everything simmer on medium heat for about 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper. Then blend everything with a blender.
6// Put the diced pumpkin in the gravy, let it cook for about 10 minutes. Then add the spinach. Your curry is ready to be served. Time to prepare the chapatis:
7// Cut your dough in pieces and roll flatbreads, using a rolling pin. I don’t have a rolling pin, so I just used a beer bottle. It works better with an empty bottle, so I drank the beer before…
8// Grill the chapatis in a very hot skillet. Make sure there is not too much excess flour on the chapati, it’ll burn in the skillet. Brush the skillet with some oil and put the chapati in. Before turning it over, brush the upper side of the chapati with some oil too. It’ll only take a few minutes until your chapati is cooked through and nicely colored on both sides.
9// Enjoy!
TheBlueChef 