Butternut Squash Erissery

Hi Every one, I am back after a very short hiatus... I had to stay away from blogging for various personal reasons for almost two weeks... But that doesnt mean I wasnt trying out new recipes. I have many tested recipes that are in draft now and will be published very soon. Even though I wasnt posting anything new, I still checked my FB, google+ updates and have tried to keep in touch with the new recipes posted by my fellow bloggers.

Today I am posting the recipe of Butternut Squash Erissery. I love using pumpkin in my day to day cooking. At my home, my mom prepares erissery using Pumpkin (Mathanga) atleast once in a week. Here in US, I havent had a chance to buy pumpkin since last April. Every week I make a note in my grocery list to buy pumpkin. But Alas.. When we check out the shop, there will be no pumpkin at all. It was to be expected. After all, by the time we decide to go for grocery shopping after the usual cleaning house - washing clothes - routine on the week end, it will be late evening... My neighbours on the other hand, wake up early on a Saturday morning and go for grocery shopping  before having lunch. So when my neighbour pointed out that may be the reason for missing out on a delicacy such as pumpkin, I decided to try going early on a week end for shopping. So the very next week end, I told my hubby that the first thing we are going to do is shopping for groceries... But as fate would have it, we had some where else to go on the Saturday and the shopping was postponed to Sunday. Fine, I thought .. Sunday early morning is still sufficient... Our Sunday early morning turned out to be 11.30 am when we got ready. But I could hear my hubby's grumbling stomach and had a feeling that by the time we reach shopping centre, he would be so hungry that he wouldnt let me shop peacefully :) Well, usually its me who complains of being hungry most of the time.. But when it comes to shopping of something that is interesting to me, I forget the time and can keep shopping till I am exhausted completely. Anyway I decided to have a quick lunch with yesterday's curries before going for shopping. So finally it was 1.30 pm by the time we reached the grocery shop. I rushed eagerly to where the pumpkins are usually kept and found no pumpkins!!! Disappointed and berating my self for not coming on a Saturday for shopping fresh groceries, I was looking around, when my eyes fell on Butternut Squash. Looks similar to pumpkin, from the gourd family, with high fibre content, butternut squash is a nutritious vegetable. Having not tried it before  and eager to try out something similar to pumpkin, I bought it and prepared Butternut erissery with it. Satisfied my cravings. Tasted similar to pumpkin. A little bit sweeter I guess. I told my hubby that it was pumpkin and he certainly didnt pick on the difference :) Planning to buy on a regular basis from now on.

I am part of the Vegan Thursday group started by Priya Suresh of Priya's Versatile Recipes. First and Last Thursday of every month we post Vegan Recipes. And Butternut Squash Erissery is my Vegan recipe for the last Thursday of this month. Do Check out the other vegan recipes posted by members of Vegan Thursday group in Pinterest. 

Butternut Squash Erissery:

3/4 - 1 cup cubes of butternut squash
1/4 Tbsp Turmeric
Water
1/2 cup grated coconut
1 Tsp cumin seeds
1/2 of a green chilly (Use as per preference. The green chillies I buy are very spicy)
2 - 3 garlic cloves
1 Tbsp Oil
1 Tbsp Mustard Seeds
2 - 3 Dry Red Chillies
3 - 4 Curry Leaves
3 - 4 Shallots
Salt

Prepping:

Step 1: Cut butternut squash into cubes. Cut green chilly, peel garlic, slice into small pieces. Peel and cut the shallots into small slices.  
Step 2: Grind coconut (Keep aside 2 Tbsp grated coconut for tempering), cumin seeds, green chilly, garlic, salt and a big fat pinch of turmeric to a smooth paste adding very little water.  

Method of Preparing:

Step 1:

Boil the cubed butternut squash along with turmeric and salt adding just sufficient water to cover the butternut squash pieces. Takes around 5 - 8 min for the butternut squash to get start getting mashed. 

Step 2:

Mash the butter nut squash well and add the ground coconut paste to it. Let it boil. Switch off. 

Step 3:

Heat 1 Tbsp oil (Preferrably coconut oil) in a pan and add mustard seeds when the oil becomes hot. Once the mustard seeds crackle, add dry red chillies and the shallots. Add curry leaves and stir till the shallots becomes brown. ( I forgot to add the curry leaves during tempering :( Hence not shown on pic). Add the grated coconut and saute till the coconut becomes light brown in color. Switch off and the pour the tempering over the butter nut squash - coconut paste mixture. 

Delicious Butternut Squash Erissery is ready to serve with hot rice. 

Also sending the recipe to the "Cook with Yellow" event organized by Merry Tummy. 



Notes:

• Please note that it is not a spicy dish. 
• Also you can add some green gram along with butternut squash and pressure cook and then add the ground coconut paste for a variation.