Bengali-Spiced Squash

tigerduck's Note:

This recipe makes wonderful, spicy, roasted squash. It comes from the 'delicious' magazine (november 2004) and appeared together with a very simple roasted ginger chicken. The chicken was a little bit lacking in taste, so I decided not to post it before having the recipe adapted. The squash was lovely, though. I chopped the leftovers and mixed it together with some pan-fried red pepper, chopped flat-leaf parsley, a little bit of olive oil, and lemon juice into couscous which I had cold for lunch. Yummy!

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1 lb squash (2 kabocha squashes) or 1 lb butternut squash (900g)
• 2 -3 tablespoons sunflower oil
• 1 medium onion , cut into thin wedges
• 2 garlic cloves , finely chopped
• 1 medium hot red chili pepper , deseeded and finely chopped
• 1 inch fresh ginger , finely grated (2.5 cm)
• 8 green cardamom pods , podded, seeds lightly crushed
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon hot chili powder

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6.
2. Cut the kabocha or butternut squashes into long wedges (I sliced the upper part of the butternut squash and halved the slices) and remove the peel, seeds and fibres from each piece.
3. Heat the sunflower oil in a large frying pan. Add the onion wedges, garlic, chilli and ginger to the pan and cook over a low heat for 5 minutes, stirring now and then, until the onions are just tender.
4. Add the spices and cook for a few seconds more.
5. Add the pieces of butternut squash and toss everything together until well coated in the spicy mixture.
6. Put the squash into a roasting tin and roast it for 35-40 minutes, or until the squash is tender and lightly browned around the edges.
7. This is delicious served together with roasted chicken and mint raita, made from chopped fresh mint into natural yogurt.

Reviews

[Stylin'Dog]

Yum! Made with butternut squash, cubed instead of wedges. Served with butter chicken, basmati rice, and a potato, peas,and paneer dish. Excellent!

[Chefme]

absolutely amazing! what a wonderfully sumptuous dish this was- i served it with a mixed veggie curry and a dhal, but this was the star of the meal! the spice blend is perfect, especially the cardamom! next time i'll use even more onions as they were great a absorbing the gorgeous flavours in this recipe.

[Bergy]

Wonderful , pungent are words that come to mind when I think of the flavors in this recipe. I served this to a very fussy eater and it was devoured! I used an acorn squash, they are paler in the flesh so the color is not as dramatic as it would be with a butternut. Easy do ahead then pop it in the oven 40 minutes before dinner. Thanks tigerduck for a recipe that I will use again & again