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Curry w/ Spicy Calabaza Squash & Chocolate

Curry w/ Spicy Calabaza Squash & Chocolate

This chocolate curry recipe combines sweet, savory, and spicy flavors in an amalgam of absolutely delectably balanced flavors. It's one of my favorite curries this season. Perhaps even of all time. Calabaza squash mixed with chocolate is incredibly fun and delightfully refreshing. I also added in walnuts, habaneros, coconut cream, lightly fried tofu, cayenne pepper, coriander, cumin, and nutmeg.
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 4 hours
Total Time 4 hours 20 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine Latin American, Thai
Servings 8 servings

Equipment

  • Large Pot
  • Stovetop
  • Skillet
  • Paper Towels

Ingredients
  

  • 2 ½ c. calabaza roasted & puréed
  • 2 c. walnuts raw, unsalted
  • 5 habaneros
  • 1/2 c. cocoa powder unsweetened
  • 1 ½ cans coconut cream
  • 3 ½ cans water
  • dash cayenne pepper
  • dash coriander
  • dash cumin
  • dash nutmeg
  • 16 oz. tofu (1 package)
  • 1 tbsp. oil

Instructions
 

Roast Calabaza Squash

  • Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • Cut squash in half and scoop out the innards to remove all of the seeds and stringy pieces.
  • Once you've cut in half and removed the innards from the squash, wrap in aluminum foil. You can also place this on a baking sheet if you want to keep any of the juice from seeping through the foil.
  • Bake for roughly 2 hours depending on size. Make sure to flip halfway through so that the squash sides are face up.
  • Let cool to the touch.
  • Remove skin and add squash to the food processor along with walnuts, habaneros, and cocoa powder. Purée until smooth, making sure to scrape the sides occasionally.

Simmer Curry

  • Add purée, coconut cream, water, cayenne pepper, coriander, cumin, and nutmeg (all of the ingredients) to a large pot.
  • Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. On my stove, this is about a 2-4 setting. Although different stoves will vary in what a simmer looks like.
  • Simmer for at least 2-4 hours. You want the liquid to reduce in half. If it’s reducing too quickly, add water and turn down the temperature. If it isn’t reducing fast enough, bring to a boil again and reduce to a slightly higher temperature.
    The longer that you cook, the more the flavors will permeate the ingredients, so simmering at a lower temperature for longer is always an option. I’ll sometimes lower the temperature to a very light simmer and pretty much leave it be for 6-8 hours.
    You never want to leave a pot on the stove unattended, but this is the kind of dish that you can kind of set up and let do its thing. You may need to turn the temperature down periodically to adjust for too rapid a simmer to keep it from boiling as the liquid evaporates. But, other than that, this is a pretty hands off dish!

Fry the Tofu

  • After the curry has reduced about in half, you're going to want to add the tofu so that it can absorb the flavors. You can either put them in as is to reduce the oil in the curry or crisp the edges to help the tofu keep its shape. For this recipe, I lightly fried the tofu.
  • While the curry is simmering, drain the water out of the tofu and cut into cubes.
  • Wrap in paper towels to absorb the moisture.
    It's important to absorb as much water out of the tofu as you can. Oil is less dense than water, so the molecules repel one another. With cold ingredients, this causes separation. When you're frying at high temperatures, though, this can cause boiling hot oil to spray back at you.
  • Meanwhile, preheat 1-2 tablespoons of oil in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.
  • When the skillet has preheated and the majority of the water has absorbed into the paper towels, carefully add the tofu to the skillet. Fry until golden brown. This should take about 2-4 minutes. Rotate until all sides are evenly fried.
  • Remove from heat and wrap again in paper towels to absorb the excess oil.
  • Add the tofu to the curry.

Cook Rice Noodles

  • After simmering the curry for at least 4 hours and the curry is just about simmered down to your liking, add the rice noodles.
  • The exact cooking time will vary by brand, but cook to the manufacturer's recommendation.
    For my brand and noodles, this typically means adding the noodles and simmering for about 20 minutes. Most brands specify boiling, but a slow simmer in the curry works just as well! Just cook until tender. Brown rice noodles tend to have to cook a little bit longer, but will reach a similar consistency eventually.
  • Serve either immediately or the next day.
    Curry will continue to the absorb the spices the more time passes. It’s one of those dishes that I like to make ahead of time because it often tastes better after the flavors have had time to set overnight.

Tips, Tricks, & Notes

  • To make the curry spicier, put more hot peppers when you cook the squash and lentils. Peppers added in the beginning stage will have a slower, more robust flavor that permeates through the dish. Peppers added towards the end of the cooking process will have more of a kick in the teeth, mouth burn.
  • If the curry absorb too much moisture, you may need to add more water. This is to taste. I tend to like a thicker curry with larger chunks, much like a thick stew. If you’re in the other camp that likes a more liquid curry, don’t hesitate to add more water. If you’re unsure, taste periodically and adjust to what you like. You can always add more water, even after you’re done cooking entirely, to lighten it up. The curry will thicken more as it cools and overnight.
  • Do you need to sauté the peppers? A lot of curry recipes want you to sauté or otherwise cook vegetables beforehand. The first direction is typically, “sauté onions and peppers in oil on the stove.” I tend not to do this because it tends to mean adding oil to the curry. Since you’re simmering down for several hours, the natural oils in the vegetables that you use will separate. This will create a film of oil on top of the curry. Some people like this. It can also be an indicator of how spicy a curry is sometimes because the more peppers that you use, the more oils will naturally leach out of them.
  • I don’t tend to find oily curry appetizing, though! So, I try to minimize the amount of added oil is in the recipe. If you’ve ever had a soup or sauce that’s separated, you know what I’m talking about. The oil will separate and settle on the top because it’s less dense than water. It will be obvious if it’s a problem.
  • If you do end up with too much oil, add an ice cube or a frozen metal ladle to draw out the oil. Then, just spoon it out until you have removed enough oil. Alternatively, if you refrigerate the curry, the oil will rise to the surface. This will create a semi-solid chunk on top and you can spoon it out. If there’s a lot of oil and it has solidified enough, you can sometimes just pick up the layer with your fingers and remove it this way.
  • For a more in-depth article on preparing tofu, check out my article on The Fundamentals of Fried Tofu. High heat oil and a precise cooking temperature are important to keep the tofu from drying out or burning.
  • For more information on puréeing the squash, I also have an entire article on The Fundamentals of Roasted Calabaza Squash.