Pumpkin Curry Recipe

This being the season of the harvest and pumpkins, I want to share a recipe I created last fall. It received great reviews from my Westchester County surrogate family, yes the same county of my hospital stay and my close friends here in SF. Remember, the freshest ingredients always make for the best taste...Enjoy!

Peanut Pumpkin Curry Sauce(serving size of 4):
2 tbsp of peanut oil
2 cloves of garlic
1 finger-length of ginger
1/3 yellow onion
1.5 tbsp of good peanut butter (I prefer the crunchy Trader Joes brand)
2 tbsp Sweet Soy Sauce (specifically sweet soy sauce)
1 16oz can of pure pumpkin puree
3 tbsp of Coconut Curry Sauce (found at asian market)
1 tbsp of red curry paste (more or less depending on how spicy you like)
1 8oz(small size) of Chao Koh coconut milk
2 tbsp of shaved palm sugar (or 1.5 tbsp of brown sugar) (palm sugar is found in the asian market. Usually its in a small disc shape but is very hard).
1/3 cup of chicken stock
1 med size red bell pepper
1 med size green bell pepper
1 carrot
1 handful of cilantro
2 cups Jasmine rice
1 container of tofu or 1 large chicken breast or other preferred meat. If you use fish, recommend cooking the fish separately.

Directions:

Prep(most important):

If you have a rice cooker, mix 4 cups of water into the 2 cups of rice and start. Always use, a 2:1 water/rice mixture. Smash and cut garlic. Finely chop ginger. Cut onion into small pieces. Cut bell peppers into small pieces along with carrot. Cut tofu or meat into small pieces. Finely chop cilantro. Set veggies and meat aside so as you are ready to add when needed.

Cooking: If you have a wok, use it. If not a deep dish non-stick frying pan works well too or a paella pan. Use a medium heat. Add peanut oil. Let warm. Then add, onion, garlic, and ginger. Be sure to stir so as to prevent burning. Once the onions begin to cook and the garlic becomes fragrant, add the peanut butter. Pour the soy sauce onto the peanut butter. This will cause the peanut butter to begin to separate. Quickly stir it all together then immediately add the pumpkin puree. Stir all together so that everything is infused. Should turn from bright orange to a darker orange. Let sit for 1 min. Now add the curry sauce and curry paste. Stir together. Sauce should be very thick now. Add the coconut milk and stir in. Turn heat to medium and add tofu/chicken and carrots. As sauce thickens slowly add chicken stock in small increments to keep the sauce from getting to thick. Cook for 4-5min. Now add the peppers. Stir in additional chicken stock and add the palm sugar. Stir all together. Let sit for another 1-2min over low heat. Taste and determine whether you want more heat. If you like it. Turn off heat. Sprinkle cilantro on top of sauce when serving. Serve with fresh rice or you can mix the sauce with rice noodles or pasta noodles to have a curry-noodle dish.