Martha Stewart Living (October 2015)
Even though we didn't write about it this year, we had a decent season in our little backyard garden.
Early in the year, we had a really nice crop of lettuces and other leafy greens. We had tons of cherry tomatoes -- almost every day throughout July and August, we tromped out to the garden and grabbed a handful of those sweet little tomatoes and threw them into whatever we were cooking for dinner that night. And we had lots of nice fresh herbs -- almost more basil than we knew what to do with.
But there was one thing this year that was a bit of a surprise: squash.
Okay, it wasn't really a "surprise" per se. We put a lot of effort into growing and fertilizing the squash. But the surprising part? The squash came out pure white.
We posted this on Instagram at the end of August, but we're still just as flummoxed.
We thought we'd planted good ol' yellow summer squash, but, well, we must not have.
The other big surprise about the squash was just how much we got. After a couple of fruitless (vegetableless?) years trying to grow squash, we wound up with four or five big gourds like the one in that photo. We sautéed one or two, which worked great. (In taste and texture, this mystery squash ended up somewhere between a summer squash an a winter squash -- firmer and crisper than a yellow summer squash, but not as firm and creamy-tasting as a butternut.)
Anyway.
When we saw a special feature all on squash recipes in the new issue of Martha Stewart Living, it seemed like a great way to use the rest of our bumper crop.
There are lots of nice-sounding squash recipes in the October Martha, including a Squash Hash with Kale and Baked Eggs that we bet is delicious. But we settled on this Chicken-and-Squash Curry. The flavors sounded great, and we thought would make a nice take-to-work lunch.
In very broad strokes, this isn't a complicated recipe. You make a flavor base of aromatics, then you add to that to make a liquid base, then you cook the chicken in the liquid.
But it's actually got a fair number of steps. This is not a throw-together 30-minute-meal kind of thing. The first step alone -- peeling and chopping all that ginger, garlic and onion, and then browning it in oil -- took us about 45 minutes. (Granted, we were doubling the recipe to have plenty for work lunches. That meant twice as much to peel and chop. But either way, you should know this is a slightly time-consuming dish.) Also, the recipe calls for bone-in, skinless chicken thighs. We couldn't find any, so we wound up having to skin the thighs ourselves. Not hard, but, again, it took some time.
Once you've got the aromatic base, you add the broth and cook for 30 minutes, then add the chicken and cook another 40 minutes. We'll be honest -- there was one point when we almost started dialing our local Indian takeout place, ordering some chicken tikka and ditching this whole thing.
But thank god we didn't.
This dish is phenomenally good. It's got a wonderful depth of complex flavor. The cumin, coriander, ginger, cayenne, clove -- it's exotic and warming. (We were thrilled to find curry leaves at an Indian market near our house! But as the recipe says, bay leaves would work well too.)
We were happy to use up the last of our squash. But honestly, butternut squash would have made this dish even better. It would have brought a creaminess and more flavor than the squash we had on hands. Next time we'll use butternut.
All in all, this was flat-out wonderful. We were so glad we doubled the recipe. We ate this for dinner a couple times and lunch at least once.
So set aside a couple hours on Sunday afternoon, double this recipe, and wait for your home to be filled with the wonderful warm aroma of Indian spices.
Chicken-and-Squash Curry
Martha Stewart Living (October 2015)
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(This photo: David Prince/Martha Stewart Living)
Prep time: 45 mins | Total time: 2 hours
Servings: 8
INGREDIENTS
2 large onions, coarsely chopped (4 cups)
8 to 10 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped (1/4 cup)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped peeled fresh ginger (from a 4-inch piece)
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon safflower oil
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
2 teaspoons black or brown mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 whole clove
2 tablespoons tomato paste
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
3 fresh curry leaves (available at penzeys.com) or 2 dried bay leaves
3 pounds bone-in chicken thighs, skinned
1 1/4 pounds kabocha or butternut squash, halved, seeded, peeled, and cut into 1-inch pieces (5 cups)
Coarse salt
Cooked basmati rice, yogurt, and cilantro, for serving
DIRECTIONS
Puree onions, garlic, and ginger in a food processor until smooth. Heat a Dutch oven or other heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high. Add 1/4 cup oil and cumin and mustard seeds. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 to 60 seconds.
Add onion mixture and cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to brown, about 8 minutes. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring frequently, until liquid has evaporated and bottom of pan begins to brown, about 3 minutes more. Stir in remaining 1 tablespoon oil and spices; cook 15 seconds. Stir in tomato paste and cook, stirring, 15 seconds more.
Add broth and cook, scraping up browned bits from bottom of pot. Add curry leaves and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer; cook, partially covered, 30 minutes.
Season chicken and squash with salt and add to pot, pushing down into liquid. Return to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook, partially covered and occasionally pushing chicken and squash into liquid, until chicken is cooked through and squash is tender, about 40 minutes. Season with more salt. Serve over rice, topped with yogurt and cilantro.
