Thursday, November 3, 2011

Indian Summer Stew

Butternut Squash, Coconut, and Lentil Stew
The term "summer" is misleading, and I'm not sure I followed 
the reasoning behind it. But, whatever.

This was so good and hearty that we were satisfied with
just it and some naan bread.
Luckily I had seen Aarti make this.
It was so easy and quick but the *scary* part was 
what you do with the mustard seeds. 
You get a couple of tablespoons of oil screaming hot and 
then toss in the mustard seeds.
They pop and jump and sputter and generally go nutz!
Glad to have seen that on TV!
Then after you add red pepper flakes, garlic and salt, 
you dump the whole mess into the stew.
Popping, jumping and sputtering repeat.
And then you swirl some of the stew in the pan the spices have been in
and get a bit more jumping, popping, sputtering.
It's a very active dish. 
But very delicious.

My *tips*, 
you can get brown mustard seeds at The Spice House,
unsweetened coconut is in the healthy eating aisle, 
pigeon peas are not native to suburbia Illinois, 
lentils will suffice.

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