Tempered Pumpkin Coconut Curry

වට්ටක්කා තෙම්පරාදු නියඹලාව / Wattakka Themperadu Niyambalawa - Sri Lankan Pumpkin Curry with ground mustard and tempering is a slight twist on a very traditional recipe hailing from the south coast of Sri Lanka.

There are a few different ways of making pumpkin curry in Sri Lanka and this is one of my favourites. One is a red pumpkin curry that's cooked until it's very dry and spicy and has little or no coconut milk added. If you toast ground coconut, pepper & mustard and raw rice and grind it to make a paste which is added to the pumpkin, the pumpkin curry becomes වට්ටක්කා කළු පොල්. (Pumpkin with blackened/roasted coconut).

Traditionally for the Niyambalawa, raw and untoasted coconut is used and it is ground together with garlic, mustard, black pepper and salt, and sometimes raw rice is included as well. These are not toasted prior to being ground. For my version I am adding a tempering on top which already adds a caramelised flavour to the dish and I am leaving the garlic out of the ground up mixture.

If you’re using raw rice in the coconut mixture, note that you are absolutely welcome to, but be aware the curry will become very thick.

Ingredients

For the curry:

• 350g Jap/Kent pumpkin

• 1 inch piece of Sri Lankan cinnamon outer bark

• 2 inch piece pandan leaf

• 1 sprig curry leaves

• 4 green chilies (small) slit down the middle

• 15g red onion sliced

• 4 cloves of garlic sliced

• 2 tsp salt

• 1 tsp turmeric

• 300ml water

• 75ml coconut cream/thick coconut milk

For the coconut mixture:

75g raw coconut

1 tbs black mustard seed

1 tbs whole black peppercorns

150ml boiled pumpkin water

For the tempering:

15g red onion sliced

3 cloves of garlic sliced

1 sprig curry leaves

4 whole dried red chilies

1tbs coconut oil

Method

Place all items except for the coconut milk in the "For the curry" list of ingredients above and bring to the boil.

While the pumpkin is boiling and softening, grind together the ingredients in the "For the coconut mixture" list. Use some of the boiling liquid from the pumpkin to loosen the coconut mixture up.

Taking care not to vigorously stir the pumpkin pieces or overcook them, add in the ground coconut mixture to the pumpkin and bring to the boil.

Whilst the curry is thickening, fry together all of the ingredients from the "Tempering" list until fragrant. Note: the curry thickens as it cools so ensure that you stop the cooking and boiling process whilst it is still fairly watery, depending on the consistency you like.

Add in the thick coconut milk and boil the curry for 2-3 minutes. Add in the tempering and take off the heat. Serve hot!