Or, why I showered this morning with a washing up glove tied over my left hand with a hair elastic. Forgive the dirty fingernail; at the time this picture was taken I couldn’t wash my hands.
For a while I’ve been quietly looking for a more convenient way to peel pumpkin. My usual method, of chunking the thing then slicing away the skin vertically using an ordinary kitchen knife, seemed a bit unwieldy and left my pumpkin pieces looking like Kryten from Red Dwarf.* I remember reading that Susan had better luck using a serrated peeler, so when I came across a serrated peeler in a bland homewares store the other day I bought it, along with a sensible serving platter that was on sale, and, lo, I had become my mother, passive-aggressive destroyer of worlds.
Anyway, the l’il bastard worked great guns. It went through my pieces of butternut like sharp serrated blade through vegetable skin, which is to say quickly and efficiently. Unfortunately, I decided to hold the pumpkin in my left hand and peel with my right towards my body, so it also went quickly and efficiently through the thumb joint of my left hand, carving out a neat, deep, triangular flap of skin.
I’m not a particularly squeamish person, and don’t really have a problem with the sight of blood, but standing over the sink with blood dripping thickly down the drain my stomach exited my body and my knees went soft. Fortunately, a foreign man was around to swathe my hand in gauze and ask if I wanted to call for take away, but I would not be deterred. That motherfucking pumpkin was going down.
I was in the process of making a sweet, cinnamony, minty stew from Delicious magazine that could be described as vaguely ethnic. I borrow the term from my friend Sebastian, a man fond of kaftans, unusual time signatures, superfluous umlauts and what he calls vaguely ethnic music. Delicious likes to call it a vegetable tagine, but since it is not cooked in the conical ceramic vessel best seen in Australia collecting dust on gourmet cookware store shelves, I shall not call it that. I dub it Vaguely Ethnic Stew, and it has tasted my blood. Also, it is minty and sweet and spicy, and I will totally make it again, albeit with more care.
Vaguely Ethnic Stew
Serves two, with leftovers
- Half an onion, chopped.
- A garlic clove, crushed
- A centimetreish cube of ginger, grated
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 butternut pumpkin, peeled carefully and chunked
- 250ml vegetable stock
- A tin of tomatoes
- A handful of green beans, ends snapped
- A palmful of chopped mint
- 1 tbsp honey
- Rice or couscous to serve.
Turn the onion in a pan with olive oil over medium heat until soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and give it a few more seconds. Add the spices and turn quickly to combine with the oil, then stir in the chunked pumpkin, tomatoes and vegetable stock. Season, bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered until the pumpkin is soft, about 12-15 minutes.When the pumpkin is toothsome add the green beans, turn and cook for around 5 minutes until the beans are bright green. Before serving stir in the mint and honey.
Eat while hot, and be grateful for your health.
* For reference.
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