Jamaican Beef and Pumpkin Curry

I know what your thinking - Jamaican Curry? Whaaaat? Curry is Asian! Well, yeah, it is. But also, it's not. Despite the infamy of the African slave trade in the Americas, many indentured servants (read, slaves) from India were also brought over to work, and as a result curries are common throughout the Caribbean. Need proof? Read about Nicki Minaj. (Her real last name is Maraj.) She's the most famous person that I can think of with crossed African/Indian ancestry, and was born in Trinidad.

Anyway, moving onto the food! Pumpkin - who doesn't love it? Great in pies, breads, lattes... but pumpkin is also very good in savory and spicy dishes like this one. MAKE SURE to get a pie pumpkin! They possess much more flavor than your regular ol' jack-o-lantern variety. If you can find a pie/baking pumpkin, another form of squash, like acorn, will work just as good. I just enjoy working with pumpkin, feels like I'm doing something fun and adventurous, putting the orange gourd in a main dish!

What makes this dish 'Jamaican' in nature is the teaspoon of allspice added in. I prefer to use McCormick's Red Curry Powder when making this, but technically regular old curry powder will do. I would NOT recommend the Hot Madras curry, however. The Red Curry Powder is somewhat sweeter than others, and creates an intense aroma when you first fry up the beef.

I used precut stew beef for my meat, but feel free to use something fancier. I'm cheap, and so I bought the cheap. End of story. Add the dry ingredients (salt, pepper, curry powder, allspice, ground coriander seed) to the beef, making sure that all pieces are well covered. Then place in a bowl, set in refrigerator, and allow to marinate for an hour or more.

About chopping up the pumpkin: it's not exactly the easiest thing to do. One of the big differences between this recipe, and pretty much every other one I've ever done that has pumpkin in it, is that you need to leave the fruit in big chunks. This means that you can't bake or microwave the pumpkin and scoop its guts out. Which means you have to remove the rind. Oh boy. So, here's what I do - I stab the whole pumpkin a few times, place it on a microwave safe plate, and then microwave it for about 1 minute 30 seconds, rotating it every now and then. This softens it up a bit. Then cut pumpkin in half, remove seeds and weird nasty feeling stringy stuff, cut off stem area. Cut the halves in half again. Cut those halves in half. Then, carefully, with a sharp knife, set a piece on its side and carefully start slicing the rind off. Some pumpkin rinds are easier to remove the rind than others, each one is a unique creature.

For the tomatoes, make sure you remove the skin and seeds. The easiest way to do this is to set the tomatoes in boiling water, until the skins split. IMMEDIATELY RUN UNDER COLD WATER. This stops the cooking process. I forgot to do this, and as a result, created a huge mess when I cut into them. The skin should just slide right off, once they are cool enough to handle.

If your going to add the habanero, I have a secret method of not getting the burning pain up under my fingernails. Cut the habanero in half, and then deseed and rib it under running water. Helps prevent the burning. Remember to wash your hands immediately afterwards nonetheless, or use gloves when working with them.

Once you've browned the meat, onion, garlic, added the tomatoes, and habanero (for those who dare), then add about a cup of tomato sauce, a cup of water, and a chicken bouillon cube. Let it cook forever. Then enjoy with lots of rice!

Oh, you should smell this cooking. Blows you away with its wonderful scent. A perfect fall dish.