12 Days of Cooking - Spicy Butternut Curry

This recipe come from a book I got at Ross for like $3 called Pumpkin, Butternut & Squash: 30 Sweet and Savory Recipes. It's really a cute little book - lots of great pictures, and who doesn't love pictures of food? However, this is the first recipe I've made from this book, and the recipe had a few errors in it. The final dish turned out okay - I should have served it with some rice - but all in all I think I'd give it a 3 out of 5.

 (picture from Amazon)

I, of course, took no pictures, but I assure you - it was quite the orange dish! Very pretty to look at, if nothing else! The recipe is below, with my changes in bold.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons sunflower or peanut oil (The first error came with the amount of oil - I found that it was not even close to enough oil to stir fry everything that needed to be stir fried. I added the 2 tablespoons, and within just a few minutes, it was gone and things were starting to burn a little. I just eyeballed it and added what I thought would help get me through - maybe another 3 or so tablespoons.)
• 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
• 1 lb. butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 onions, finely sliced (I found 2 onions to be a bit much - I used one complete onion and probably could have used less)
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• a pinch of ground turmeric
• 1 lb. tomatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1 cup heavy cream (I subbed half & half)
• 1 large package of spinach (I left this out)
• a pinch of ground cumin or garam masala
• sea sald and fresh ground pepper

Heat the oil in a non-stick skillet or wok, add the mustard seeds and stir fry until they pop. Add half the butternut and all of the onions and stir fry gently until onions are soft and translucent. Add garlic, ginger, salt and pepper and stir fry for one minute. Add turmeric and stir fry for one minute more. Add the tomatoes and remaining butternut, bring to a boil (this was a little strange to me, as the only liquid that was in the mixture was the juice from the tomatoes. I found that I needed to kinda squish the tomatoes a little in order to get most of the juice out, which was barely enough to cover the bottom of the skillet. The more it cooked, the more juice they produced, but I would keep a close eye on it for the first few minutes to make sure it doesn't burn), then reduce the head and simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes, or until tender. Add the cream, bring to a boil and simmer, stirring until thickened. Add spinach and cumin or garam masala, cover, and steam for 2 minutes until the leaves collapse.

I would definitely serve this with rice if I were to make it again.

Up next? Gingerbread!!