Curry Fail...Almost

Last night I attempted to make this recipe. I thought it seemed pretty simple, but I was in for somewhat of an adventure. I had just bought some red curry paste a few hours earlier, and I was really excited to somehow incorporate it with my poor butternut squash that had been sitting there for a week or so. When I found the recipe, I was pumped! Especially since I didn't need coconut milk, which I didn't have.

So, I started out by roasting cubed butternut squash, large pieces of onion, and four garlic cloves with olive oil, salt, chili powder, fresh nutmeg (thanks to my microplane from Uncle Fred!), and fresh cinnamon.

About 35 minutes at 350 degrees later...gorgeousness! My apartment smelled amazing at this point. I wish there was always roasted butternut squash ready to come out of my oven.

I started on the base for the curry. The recipe had me mix chicken broth with a bunch of spices. Instead of that, I used vegetable stock with two spoonfuls of curry paste and lots of red pepper flakes. I thought it was a little weird to use stock, but it worked.

So here's where it started to fail. The recipe said to whisk in yogurt. I did that. It immediately curled. Yuck. So I had to strain out the clumps and start over with the curry broth. The second time around I slowly added the broth to the yogurt container until I had a half and half mix of the two, then I dumped it into the pot. It worked! It looked pretty good and tasted excellent.

I didn't add any butter or cream, and that could have been my next problem. I added the veggies and let it cook for 15 minutes (per the directions) and it completely curdled again. Ahhh! I had to strain the whole thing again and pick out the veggies. I wasn't going to dump this out...it was too good to waste.

Oh, and I made quinoa for the first time (I'm a little behind in the culinary world I suppose), and I loved it!!

So I ended up with a clear broth curry soup of sorts. At first (in these pictures) I put the quinoa in a bowl and put the curry on top of it. The curry was so thin (but good!) that it wasn't really a pour-on-top kind of deal. So I just added the quinoa to the pot, which made it a lot thicker...and easier to take to work.

All troubles aside, it ended up working out. Butternut squash mixed with spicy spices is definitely a good choice! If I make this again, I'll just go for the normal way I make curry, and just use light coconut milk.

Also, quinoa is my new favorite! I love how the little spheres pop in your mouth...it was like eating caviar.

Has anyone else ever encountered kitchen failures?