Kit Perera’s Pumpkin & Snake Bean Coconut Curry

Kit Perera turns up pumpkin and produces a Sri Lankan-inspired curry of amazing flavours. 

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
6-8 curry leaves
2 dried red chillies
1 onion, finely sliced
1 cm piece ginger, peeled and grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
½ teaspoon paprika
800g pumpkin, peeled and cut in to 3cm pieces
400ml light coconut milk
200g snake beans, trimmed and cut in to 4cm batons
salt to taste

Heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium-high heat, add the mustard seeds and allow them to pop. Add the curry leaves and chillies and fry for 30 seconds. Add the onion and fry until lightly golden. Stir in the ginger, garlic and spices, and fry for about a minute.

   Add the pumpkin and fry for 2 minutes, then stir in the coconut milk and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the beans and cook for further 10 minutes. Season with salt.

   Serve with steamed basmati rice.

   Serves 6.

★ Kit Perera is famous for his Sri Lankan food, even though he’s equally adept in French and Moroccan cuisines. He is also unequivocally passionate about cooking as he is about cricket. Born in Sri Lanka, Kit became a professional cricketer, and this sporting career has taken him to England, Australia and New Zealand, where he’s a coach and mentor up to the Black Caps level. Kit’s Chef for the Night is a highly popular event where he cooks Sri Lankan food for select parties in the setting of their homes or a studio kitchen centre. He’s the perfect consummate host chef, with smashing anecdotes from his professional cricket career and his colourful travels.

http://kitperera.com/#chefforanight
http://kitperera.com/#kitskitchen
http://kitperera.com/#kidscookingwithkit
https://www.facebook.com/kit.perera
PHOTOGRAPHS BY WILLIAM CHEN