Red Curry with Red Kuri Squash over Forbidden Rice

Red Curry with Red Kuri Squash (Better pic over the rice coming soon!)

 

This is the BEST Red Curry Paste.  Mae Ploy also makes 

yellow, green and panang curry paste.  This is a KEY ingredient!

My most favorite coconut milk

Forbidden Rice.  Originally grown for the Emperor of China.  

All others were forbidden from eating it.

Red Kuri Squash.  I love the ones grown by Tutti Fruitti Farms. 

If you can't find Red Kuri squash you can substitute Butternut

or another squash you like.

I was going to my cookbook club last Thursday.  The theme for this month was fall favorites.  I thought it would be the perfect time to try to recreate the Apple Spice Cake that I loved from Peter's Pastries that I used to buy in high school.  I have a strong taste memory of exactly what that apple spice cake looked like and tasted like.  I went through tons of old recipe books trying to find something similar as I knew it was an old recipe.  

Well it didn't turn out AT ALL like my memory.   So now it was 5:15 and my cookbook club is at 6:00 and  I needed to figure out something to throw together at the last minute.  I had just recently purchased Red Kuri Squash as I love all of the fall squashes and then went with items I always have in my pantry:  Red Curry Paste, Coconut Milk and Forbidden Rice.    I quickly threw it all together with a little lime juice, lemon juice and fish sauce.  Then throw in some red Kale for fun because I wanted something green.

Then my mom stopped by and I told her about my apple spice cake disaster and she tasted it and said "this is just the kind of simple cake I love."  So then I cut the spice cake out into little rounds to bring as well as my quickly thrown together dish.  Everyone at the club asked for the recipe, which was not yet written down as I had just made it up.  But the point of this whole story is that it is really easy, really quick and very flavorful.  It's one of the things that sounds like it might be complicated but isn't.  You don't even sauté a thing.  You just basically put it all in one pot and heat it up and it's done.

I decided to make another version this morning to play around with adding some optional ingredients that were also good.  So have fun with this and make it your own.  I'll begin with the base recipe and then add the optional ingredients you can add in for variation.

Note:  you can make it as hot or mild as you like depending on the amount of Red Curry Paste you put in. Adjust it to. your taste.  I went with kind of medium heat for this recipe.   Another note.  I always cut off one small corner of the bag of curry paste so that it basically all stays in it's plastic bag in the little tub.  Then I squeeze out the amount I need from that corner.  Once I open it, I refrigerate it.

Locally Indo China in Goleta carries the coconut milk and Mae Ploy Red Curry Paste.  El Rancho Market carries the Forbidden Rice and the Red Kuri Squash.

RED CURRY with RED KURI SQUASH over FORBIDDEN RICE

Makes about 7 cups, serving 4 to 6 people

1 tablespoon Red Curry Paste,  Mae Ploy brand highly recommended

4 cans Coconut Milk, Chaokoh brand highly recommended

1 teaspoon Kosher salt (I know it seems odd I'm putting in both fish sauce and Kosher Salt but the squash will absorb the Kosher salt as the squash cooks.)

1 Red Kuri Squash, Peeled with a vegetable peeler, seeds removed and cut into chunks

        (Butternut Squash or your favorite squash can be substituted)

2 tablespoons Fish Sauce, I used Three Crabs brand but there are a number of good ones

Juice of one lemon

Lime Zest and Juice of two limes

Red Curly Chard, diced or green of your choice, Spinach or any chard would be good

Optional additional ingredients:

Mushrooms

Japanese Eggplant

Green Beans

Tomatoes

Thai Basil

Serve over Forbidden Rice

Before you start the curry make the Forbidden Rice.  In a rice cooker the ratio is 1 cup of rice to  1 1/4 cups water.  On the stove the ratio is 1 cup of rice to 1 cup of water.  Its a big difference so be sure to adjust your measurements for the correct method.

In a soup pot put the tablespoon of Red Curry Paste.  Turn the heat to medium and add the 4 cans of coconut milk, and the Kosher Salt and stir.

Add the cut up pieces of  Red Kuri Squash and turn the heat to medium high.

Add the fish sauce, the lemon juice, the lime zest (optional) and lime juice.

Add the Red Chard and any other ingredients.

Cook until the squash is tender.  Server over Forbidden Rice with extra lime wedges.

If your curry is too thick you can thin it with chicken broth.

Maili Halme Peterson