alteRecipes squash and green bean recipe

photo by m-c

squash and green bean curry
(vegetarian)

recipe by m-c

what I was looking for

I had a roasted winter squash, and I was looking for a recipe to alteR by way of illustrating one of the tactics in Chapter 3 of Domestic Intelligence: Don't boil, roast instead.

Notes about that tactic in Word or HTML.

As soon as I grokked the recipe, however, I knew I wanted to make it for its own sake, independent of any lesson it might teach.

what I made

The Squash and Green Beans in a Coconut-Milk Curry from Ruta Kahate's 5 Spices, 50 Dishes (pages 28-29).

grades for my version

healthy	A-	If having even the smallest dot of saturated fat is bad for you, you can use oil in the tadka instead of butter and go from an A- to an A.
fast	C	Slower than Ruta's version because I roasted the squash instead of boiling it.
easy	B	Easier than Ruta's version because, again, I roast the squash instead of boiling it.
cheap	A-	Squash, green beans cheap, coconut milk, cashews slightly more expensive.
delicious	A	I'm wild about the luxurious textures and sparkling flavor of this dish. Without the error I made about the beans this would become an A+. (Yes, that's right, m-c occasionally takes after mb and awards an A+.)

yield

Ruta's version serves 4. I didn't scale it back at all because it was our main dish. It served 2 generously, with a tiny speck left over for us to arm-wrestle about. (I won.)

equipment

   frying pan with lid

   pancake turner

   small frying pan with lid

the veggies

ingredients	Ruta	m-c	why?
winter squash	8 oz. raw butternut squash	8 oz. roasted winter squash [1]	easier [2]
beans	8 oz. green beans trimmed and chopped into 1‑inch pieces	8 oz. long beans trimmed and chopped into 1‑inch pieces	a mistake [3]
salt	to taste	to taste	no change

Notes
[1]	I believe it was a Warren or an Essex Hybrid.
[2]	Easier because roasting is inherently easier than boiling (not to mention that, since I had already roasted it, using it roasted was easier).
[3]	I love long beans, but here I think Ruta was right and I should have used the stronger-flavored green beans instead.

Separate the skin and flesh of the squash from the seeds and the stringy innards. (Save the seeds and strings for other uses.)

With a very sharp knife, cut the skin and flesh into blobs that bear some resemblance to two-inch cubes. Do your best to keep the skin and flesh together. The skin is completely edible at this point, and good for you, but not so toothsome if it lacks accompanying flesh.

Meanwhile, simmer/steam the beans with a little salted water in the covered frying pan till they are tender but still crispy. The beauty of this dish is the balance of soft, melting squash texture with crunchy bean texture.

the sauce

ingredients	Ruta	m-c	why?
coconut milk	1 cup canned	1 cup canned	no change

Carefully place the squash blobs around the beans and then top the whole assemblage with the coconut milk.

The best tool for blending the constituents is a pancake turner. Keep the flat front on the surface of the frying pan and skate the squash, beans, and coconut milk around, swirling them together. Don't use a spoon, which would break up the squash blobs.

photo by m-c

the tadka

ingredients	Ruta	m-c	why?
fat	2 Tablespoons canola oil	2 Tablespoons brown butter	tastier [1]
mustard seeds	¼ teaspoon	½ teaspoon	tastier [2]
chiles	2 medium-sized green serranos, minced	½ medium green serrano, minced	tastier [3]
nuts	3 Tablespoons coarsely chopped cashews	3 Tablespoons coarsely chopped cashews	no change

Notes
[1]	Tastier but less healthy -- you decide what's more important to you.
[2]	Tastier to me, obviously not to Ruta, nor, perhaps, to you.
[3]	Tastier to Mark. I use chiles in cooking to his taste and then add sliced fresh serranos at the table to mine.

Follow whichever method for making the tadka that you prefer:

Traditional (hot pan)

Put canola oil into a small pan with a lid and heat it till it shimmers. Throw in the mustard seeds and cover the pan with the lid.

When the mustard seeds no longer make sizzling, crackling noises, remove the lid and throw in the chiles and the nuts. (Lid no longer needed.)

As soon as you can smell the chiles and nuts, pour the mixture over the squash and beans and serve the dish immediately.

Untraditional (cold pan)

Put the brown butter and the mustard seeds into a cold pan with a lid.

Put the lid on the pan and heat it up till you can hear the mustard seeds sizzle and crackle.

Take the pan off the heat, and let it cool down till you can rest your fingers on the bottom of the pan.

Add in the chiles and nuts. (No more lid.) Cook on the stove over high heat.