Mathanga Erissery / Pumpkin Erissery

As a kid, I was a picky eater. I was lean too. So people used to think I never ate anything. But if I was provided with something that I love, I would just hog on it. It has not changed much over the years. I still do that :). So anyone who asked me what was my favorite curry was; without any second thought I would say - Mathanga Erissery. I loved it and I still do.

We make this quite often these days. Jacob too loves it and Jordan finds it easy to eat as it just does not need any chewing. And the main highlight is that its not difficult to make.

So who all are Mathanga fans here, like me. You got to try it. They are just finger licking good.

Ingredients

1. 3 cups of Mathanga/Pumpkin cut into cubes
2. 1/3 cups of grated coconut
3. 1 tsp of Jeera/Cumin seeds
4. 2-3 green chilles
5. 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder
6. Salt to taste

For tempering

1. 1 tsp of mustard seeds
2. 1 sprig of curry leaves
3. 3 shallots sliced
4. 2-3 red chilly
5. 2 tbsp of grated coconut
6. 3 tbsp of oil

Method

• In a grinder, grind the ingredients 2-5 to form a paste. 
• In a pan, add the pumpkin pieces, salt and water just enough to cover the pumpkin. Cook it on medium heat, untill the pumpkin gets cooked. Mash it well.
• Add the ground paste to the cooked and mashed pumpkin. Adjust the salt and water. Continue to cook it for 5 minutes.
• Turn of the heat. 
• In a wok, heat up 2 tbsp of oil. Once hot, add the mustard seeds to it. Let it splitter. Now add the sliced shallots, curry leaves and red chilly. Let it fry up. Drop it on top of the cooked pumpkin. Now heat up the remaining 1 tbsp of oil. Fry the 2 tbsp of grated coconut in it. Use it to garnish the cooked pumpkin. 

Tips

1. Do not add too much water to the curry else they might turn too runny. The curry should be thick.
2. If the pumpkin you use is not that ripe enough, adding a tbsp of sugar to the curry would give it the taste of a ripen pumpkin.
3. You could pressure cook the pumpkin instead of cooking it in the pan. For me, it takes, 1 whistle on high heat followed by another whistle on low heat. 
4. You could also add red cow peas/ Vanpayar to the curry. For that, you would need to cook the peas untill soft and then add it to the cooked pumpkin before adding the grated coconut paste.