Thai Yellow Pumpkin and Seafood Curry

The weather is warm and I am planning to have fish for dinner tonight. I have found an old favourite recipe to revamp for dinner. A lovely Thai Yellow Pumpkin and Seafood Curry – I am not sure I have prawns in the freezer right now so it may well be a fish curry, and a firm white fish not the salmon that Nigella suggests. The beauty with recipes like this is that you can tweak it  to your taste and what is on standby in your pantry. I have loads of greens from the garden which I will use instead of the pak choi. The important thing is not to skimp on the addition of lime juice, fish sauce and the fresh coriander. Enjoy!

Thai Yellow Pumpkin and Seafood Curry

Ingredients

• 400 ml coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon(s) red thai curry paste (or yellow)
• 350 ml fish stock
• 3 tablespoon(s) fish sauce
• 2 tablespoon(s) caster sugar
• 3 lemongrass (cut into 3 and bruised with flat of knife)
• 3 lime leaves (destalked and cut into strips)
• ½ teaspoon(s) tumeric powder
• 1 kilogram(s) pumpkin (peeled and cut into bite sized chunks)
• 500 gram(s) salmon fillet (pref organic) skinned and cut into large bite sized chunks
• 500 gram(s) raw prawns (peeled)
• 1 packet(s) pak choi (or any other green veg of your choice)
• 1 lime (juice)
• 1 bunch coriander (to serve)

Method

1. Skim the thick creamy top off the tin of coconut milk and put it, over medium heat, into a large saucepan or casserole with the curry paste. Let it sizzle and, using a fork, whisk or wooden spoon, beat milk and paste together until combined.
2. Still beating gently, add the rest of the coconut milk, fish stock, fish sauce, sugar, lemongrass, lime leaves and turmeric. Bring to a boil and then add the pumpkin. Cook on a fast simmer until the pumpkin is tender, about 15 minutes, although different sorts of pumpkins can vary enormously in the time they take to cook; some squash take as little as 5 minutes.
3. You can cook the curry up till this part in advance, maybe leaving the pumpkin with a tiny bit of bite to it (it will soften and cook as the pan cools). Either way, when you’re about 5 minutes away from wanting to eat, get ready to cook the seafood.
4. So, to the robustly simmering pan, add the salmon and prawns (if you’re using the prawns from frozen they’ll need to go in before the salmon). When the salmon and prawns have cooked through, which shouldn’t take more than 3-4 minutes, stir in any green veg you’re using – sliced, chopped or shredded as suits – and tamp down with a wooden spoon.
5. When the pak choi’s wilted, squeeze in the juice of half a lime, stir and taste and add the juice of the remaining half if you feel it needs it. Take the pan off the heat or decant the curry into a large bowl, and sprinkle over the coriander; the point is that the coriander goes in just before serving.
6. Serve with more chopped coriander for people to add to their own bowls as they eat, and some plain Thai or basmati rice.

Additional information – for gluten free check the stock cube or concentrate is gluten free.