Pumpkin Stew

Have you got lots of pumpkins sitting around? I have got a solution!  Add this delicious meal to the list of your Halloween season dishes! It is a unique Persian dish particular to the southern province of Bushehr, called khoresh-e kadoo savaaheli.

Ingredients (serving 3):

1. Veal or beef , 300 gr., cleaned, washed and cut in small pieces.
2. Pumpkin, half a kilo, peeled, brushed seedless and cut in small pieces.
3. Onion, 1 medium, thinly sliced.
4. Garlic, 2 cloves, smashed.
5. Split yellow peas, 3 tbsp.
6. Tomato paste 1 tbsp. diluted in 2 tbsp. warm water.
7. Tamarind sauce, 1 tbsp.
8. Turmeric, 1/2 teaspoon.
9. Powdered red pepper, 1/2 teaspoon (or more if you like spicy hot).
10. Oil, 2-3 tbsp.
11. Salt and water, as needed.

Method: Heat  1-2 tbsp. oil in a medium pot, and fry sliced onion until translucent. Add garlic and fry briefly. Add meat and turmeric and continue stir frying for a few more minutes.  Add salt and pepper, and diluted tomatoes  paste. Cover with water and simmer with closed lid for about half an hour or until the meat is half way cooked.

Wash split yellow peas in a small sauce pan and cook with a pinch of salt till tender. Add to the first pan, when meat is half done (I cook peas separately in case they have different cooking time).

 Heat 1 tbsp. oil in a medium pan and briefly stir fry pumpkins till golden. About twenty minutes before serving, add fried pumpkins and tamarind sauce and simmer. Adjust the taste and the juice left and watch out for the pumpkins not to go mushy.

Serve hot with plain white rice, Iranian style!