Vegetable Something on Rice and Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Fall is descending upon Holland.  The temperatures are falling and the trees are beginning to look like fire and the ever-present winter clouds have begun to peek in.

Fall is my favorite season.  I love crunching leaves, cardigans, hot cider, wrapping up in blankets, pumpkin carving.  I also love being able to eat food that warms your very insides.  Soups, stews, things that sit in crock pots all day....

I've never made curry before, although I thoroughly enjoy eating it.  I had all sorts of root vegetables in my fridge and cupboard that needed using.  And red curry paste in the cupboard.  Since returning from China my cupboard always has a healthy stock of rice.

So why not attempt a vegetable curry?

So, I perused the internet and found a plethora of recipes, none of which I wanted to make exactly.  Mostly because I just wanted to use the things in my cabinet.  But I am huge fan of borrowing from lots of recipes and making some delicious hybrid.

Here is what I ended up with:

I cut up a zucchini squash, a yellow squash, a couple small yellow potatoes, half a head of califlower, and a monstrous carrot.  I also roughly chopped up half a white onion (it was huge...and leftover in the fridge from yesterday's cooking excursion) and three garlic cloves.  I threw all these into my crock pot.  I pulled out about 3/4 a cup of vegetable stock and mixed it with a spoonful of red curry paste and poured this over the veggies.  Turned the crock pot onto low and left for a couple hours to school.

When I got back from school (3.5 hours later) I drained out the stock and put the veggies back into the pot and added a jar of mango chutney and a few spoonfuls of chili bean sauce.  Gave it all a good stir and

You can tell I'm really precise with measurements.  I'm also not really making curry anymore.  Oh well.  It smells pretty good.

I'm eating the dish now.  I need to think of a name for it.  Thoughts?

Anyway.  It's delicious.  Spicy.  Not painfully so, but my nose is running a bit.  The rice was perfectly cooked (thank you, rice cooker) and adds a nice texture to the vegetables.  I'll definitely make it again.

Also delicious are roasted pumpkin seeds.  Some friends and I had a pumpkin carving party last night, and five pumpkins produce a lot of seeds.

First, dig through all the "pumpkin brains" (as the neighbor children called them) and get rid of as much of the gunk as possible.  You just need the seeds.  Not the orange, odd smelling stringy stuff.  Once you've got all the seeds you want, give them a good wash.

We then tossed the cleaned seeds with a bit of canola oil, chili, cumin, and cayenne powders.

Put in a relatively single layer on a baking sheet at stick into a 400* F hot oven.  Let roast for 20-25 minutes.  Some of the seeds will be dark and some won't be.  But they will all be delicious!