I usually make a big vat of this for family get-togethers – it’s quick and easy to put together, it’s very tasty, and it just looks fabulous. In a large pan, saute a large onion, finely-sliced carrots and pumpkin in a lick of oil until the carrots soften and the pumpkin starts to get a little colour. Throw in some good-quality curry. Pastes are excellent and you can experiment with whatever you like. I like a good quality Thai paste that’s pretty spicy, but when I made this for my wedding I used Patak’s Mild Curry and put in a lot of garlic and lemon-grass paste for the fragrance as most of my extended family are complete chilli-wusses.
Let the paste sweat through the pumpkin etc and add green beans, capsicum, and finely sliced chilli to taste. Add a large slurp of nam pla (fish sauce). My god, this stuff stinks but the flavour is fantastic! Stir in a tin of coconut milk (the lite stuff is fine if you’re counting calories. At a pinch you can even use the light evaporated milk and some coconut essence) and let the whole thing simmer until the pumpkin is starting to fall to bits and the beans are tender. Mash the pumpkin roughly so that it adds to and thickens the sauce.
Add your seafood of choice. I use a mix of king-prawns, firm while fish fillets like hoki, some squid tubes that have been “flowered” (ie: scored finely with a knife along one axis multiple times and then the same again at 90° so that they roll up and look pretty) and – if you feel like it – a pile of crab claws or meat.
Throw in a handful of fresh bean sprouts. Finely dice several shallots and stir carefully through. Once you’ve added the seafood, you can’t do much more mixing as the fish fillits will fall to pieces, so add your finishing touches and leave it alone. Thicken the sauce if required and serve with steamed jasmine rice.
You can vary the vegetables, seafood and seasoning in this dish as you please. I don’t tend to give exactly quantities for these type of meals as I almost never make this exactly the same way twice in a row. Don’t be tied down to exact measurements for this style of dish – anything will work, within reason, so experiement.
