Delicious, traditional curry made with butternut squash, coconut and spices. 
I love to cook simple traditional recipes from my home state, Kerala, and Pacha pulinkari is one of them. Earlier I have blogged about cheera pulinkari/spinach in tamarind gravy, that is my version as it is not traditional as it has no coconut or toor dal. Amma made pulinkari as she need to find some alternative for everyday cooking. This recipe is from a Vanitha magazine about long lost curries of Kerala. There are a few more in my list to do, I will do it as I get time.
I found that difference between pulinkari and pacha pulinkari is that former one use toor dal and coconut while later one uses only coconut. We use a good amount of coconut, I think without coconut we can only make a few dishes we can make such as rasam and sambar. Rest of the curries requires a load of coconut. Trust me there is no tablespoon business, usually a half of coconut for one curry. Since I am buying coconut in dollars I use in cup rather than half of coconut. Yes it is expensive here. Always when I make curries from Kerala, I remember my mom and grandma break the coconut and then grate it in a traditional coconut grater and then cooking them in curries. Now I rarely use traditional grater (I have one in hand), but find it easy to grate small pieces of coconut using a blender. I grind the coconut pieces into a fine paste first, and then add it to the curries.
You can use any vegetables to make this curry; and I used butternut squash, as the sweetness of butternut squash perfectly pair with spiciness of chili in this recipe. The stars of this recipe are coconut, tamarind and red chilies. Since I used the butternut squash I didn’t add any sugar. If you are using any other vegetables, in order bring out the flavor of tamarind it is better to add a pinch of sugar. Here comes the recipe of Pacha pulinkari/Vegetables cooked in spicy tamarind sauce.
Delicious butternut squash curry made with fresh coconut and spices.
Ingredients
- 3 cup butternut squash chopped and cubed 1 inch pieces
- ½ cup grated coconut
- 2 ½ cups water
- ¼ cup tamarind juice (from small ping pong size ball of tamarind)
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- 2 sprig curry leaves
- ⅛ teaspoon Fenugreek seeds
- 3 red chilies
- 2 teaspoon coconut oil
- ¼ teaspoon mustard seeds
- 4 shallots/small onion
Instructions
- Cook chopped, cubed butternut squash with 1 cup of water, turmeric, 1 sprig of curry leaves and salt
- until it is soft and but not mushy.
- In a small bowl extract the juice tamarind with ¼ cup of water and set aside.
- In a skillet add 1 teaspoon oil and add 2 red chilies and fenugreek seeds and fry make sure not fry too long as burnt fenugreek seeds make curry bitter.
- Then grind the fried fenugreek seeds, chilies along with grated coconut and 1 cup water into a fine paste.
- Then add this ground coconut mixture to cooked butter nut squash along tamarind juice. Add rest of the water and bring it to boil for 5 minutes so that it will remove the raw taste of coconut.
- In a small skillet heat rest of oil and add mustard seeds, finely chopped shallots , curry leaves and red chili and fry
- until the shallots is golden brown.
- Add this seasoning to cooked butternut squash and enjoy with a bowl of rice and other side dish.
Notes
Copyright ©2016 Zesty South Indian Kitchen by Swathi( Ambujom Saraswathy) All Rights Reserved
This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
Winnie says
It looks and sounds super delicious!
I don't cook much lately but I'm definitely going to ask our housekeeper to make it.
Suja Manoj says
Must try this recipe,looks yummy
kushi says
This gravy looks so delicious and flavorful!
Beulah says
That looks like a delicious curry! Would love to try this!
Hadia says
Swathi, this is bursting with flavor. I can almost small the dish through my computer. All the ingredients are on hand. But just thinking to swap out the butternut squash for sweet potatoes. What do you think? Pinning and tweeting 🙂
veena says
delicious curry .. Love the flavours in it
Ritu Ahuja says
Lovely curry. It looks super tempting and delicious. Love it.
Poornima says
It always feels nice to remember how our mum cooked at home.. I am from Karwar and I can relate to using coconut, yet not as much as used in Kerla. I love butternut squash and that hint of sweet it adds to the curry. You have captured that taste beautifully and curry looks delicious Swathi.
beena says
Delicious curry . Love it
Ramya Venkat says
This looks delicious.shall we try this with any other veggies?