29-March-2012 (Thursday)
Reminiscences of The Holy Mother!!!

SWAMI GAURISWARANANDA - 04

I used to sit with Mother and chop vegetables with her. I used to light the stove, knead flour and roll out chapatis and luchis for her. I rolled betel leaves along with her. I used to gather flowers, tulsi leaves, bel leaves and durva, make sandalwood paste, and arrange all these in her pushpapatra. I also cut fruits, if any. In those days fruits could not be had in Jayrambati. Pumpkin was the only fruit available; potatoes the only edible root. There was a grocery so small that one day when I went to buy 500 gms of poppy seeds for Mother, the grocer retorted, “I have only that much; if I sell it to you all, what shall I sell to others?” Nowadays several big shops have come up. Mother used to give me two rolls of betel leaves to chew at a time and comment to the women around her, “I do enjoy the sight of Rammoy after he has had pan. His complexion is do dark, and with his lips crimson (with pan), it seems to me like cakes of charcoal dust (used as fuel) afire!”

(REMINISCENCES OF Sri Sarada Devi by Monastics, Devotees, and others - Compiled and Edited in Bengali by SWAMI PURNATMANANDA - Translated by MALOTI SEN GUPTA : P 78)

Location: Bangalore, India

I have often wondered what is the Indian form of "pumpkin? Is it like the pumpkin that we use here in America as Jack-o-lanterns at Halloween?

This interests me because it was the last desire of Sri Sarada Devi's mother before she left her body. She asked for pumpkin curry. I do not know what the Indian form of Pumpkin Curry is, so this past Sunday, I bought some squash and got a premade Indian sauce in a jar and made what I thought might be pumpkin curry. I did this in honor of Sri Sarada Devi's mother, as it had been on my heart to do it. It didn't taste too bad but the sauce was abit spicy and so it churned up my stomach. It is the best I can do presently to honor Sri Sarada' Devi's mother in America...

Here is a trusted recipe for you, Sister Rosemary:



PUMPKIN CURRY

4 or 5 cups peeled, chopped pumpkin
1 small onion - chopped
3 cloves of garlic - chopped
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
hot pepper - to taste
6 curry leaves
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1 teaspoon curry paste or powder
salt to taste
3 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 cup of water - if needed
1/4 washed, chopped coriander leaves for garnish

Method:

Heat up a medium size pot on stove top. Add oil, then onion, garlic,
curry leaves and seeds. Stir for a minute or two. Add tumeric and curry
paste/powder. Stir. Add pumpkin, hot pepper and salt. Stir. Put lid on
and let sweat for 5 or 7 minutes. You may see liquid released from the
pumpkin. If this happens, let pumpkin cook in its own liquid or if liquid
is not released add 1/2 a cup of water. Let cook
for 20 minutes or so
stirring from time to time. When pumpkin is cooked, it should look mushy.
Lastly add coriander leaves and stir. Serve with rice or roti. Serves 4
to 5 people.

Awesome, Brother Tom. Thank you so much. You have answered all my questions on the subject. Hope to make some pumpkin curry this weekend!!

Still,I just went back and looked at the picture, and the photo looks more like our Squash than like the orange pumpkins. Perhaps what we call pumpkin is squash in India? These details keep me in the dark somehow, but I am so glad to get help here! Thank you.

It seems that there are orange pumpkins in India, according to a search on the World Wide Web.

Yours in hopes of pumpkin curry!
Rosemary

The author of that recipe lives here in North America; so it stands to reason that she is referring to our type of pumpkin.