Pumpkin Curry and a Side Note to the Ladies

Thanks to our Full Circle Farm CSA Box we've enjoyed a lot of winter squash this fall, but I'm a little tired of using it in the archetypal autumnal recipes. I thought I'd spice things up with a little pumpkin curry inspired by Rice and Spice on lower Queen Anne.

Pumpkin Curry on Brown Rice
Serves 4
Winter squash - use either a medium delicata or half a butternut, I happened to have an eighth of a butternut on hand that needed to be finished, so I combined that with half a medium delicata for this recipe.
1/3 lb Green Beans
1 package Tempeh*
2 sprigs Basil
1 Can Coconut Milk
1/4 Cup (less depending on spice tolerance) of Mae Ploy Green Curry Paste - You can make your own, but it involves a lot of specialized ingredients that you may not want to buy much of. I have only ever done this when we were snowed in because our walk to Safeway doesn't sell green curry paste, so I had to make it from scratch. Some curry pastes have fish products in them, so do check.
0.5-1 Tb brown sugar or agave syrup
1 Cup Long grain brown rice

Put the rice in the rice cooker and cover with two cups of water. Turn it on. Peel your winter squash and cut it into spears, save the seeds for roasting later if you like. Put the squash spears in about an inch of water and set it to med-high. See picture below.
 
While your squash is cooking, prep your green beans by washing them and trimming the ends off. You might want to cut your green beans in half. Open up your tempeh, coconut milk and curry paste. When the water is almost simmered off, add the green beans for blanching.
 
Now that the water has nearly evaporated, pour in the coconut milk. You can tell if your squash is done because you should be able to easily slice them in half with your cooking spoon. Add the green curry paste and sugar/agave and stir it so that they blend into the coconut milk. Add tempeh, which is precooked and only needs to heat up.
 
Your rice should be about finished and if so, divide into four bowls (or two bowls and save some rice and curry for tomorrow), toss basil in with the curry and top the rice with it. Add a leaf of basil for sophistication. AWESOME.

About the sweet heat:
If you like your thai curries sweeter, use the full Tablespoon, if not stick to the half. If you like your curry hot, use the full 1/4 cup, but if not go down to as little as 1/8 of a cup, but no less. If I do this again I will probably use about mid way between the two. Charlie thought this was pretty spicy.

What is agave syrup you might ask? It's a natural sugar substitute from the same plant they make tequila with. It's becoming popular because it doesn't have the same glycemic reaction that sugar does. I have been using it and like it a lot. I found it at Costco, but I'm sure it's available in a ton of places.

*And the side note for the ladies. I am finding that after a month of veggie living that my monthly cycle is a bit off (as in a very early false start, followed by delay of game), I expect that will not last long, but it is annoying none the less, and for the first time since I started being veggie, I *really* want some meat, which is why I used tempeh instead of tofu in this recipe. Tempeh seems to have a meatier quality to it. Anyway, TMI, but if anyone out there is thinking of becoming a vegetarian, this info might help you.