Futari

Futari (From Tanzania)

2c pumpkin, peeled & cut into 2" chunks

2c sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into 2" chunks

3T onion, finely chopped

1T butter

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

1/2 t cloves

1t salt

1-2c coconut milk

1t cinnamon

If your pumpkin or winter squash is very tough and hard to cut, you may want to estimate the amount you will need, and then use a very sharp knife to cut off a big chunk.  Boil the piece for 3-4 minutes, then plunge into cold water until cool enough to handle.  At this point, the pumpkin or squash will be easier to peel and chop.

Fry the onion in butter until just golden brown.  Combine with the pumpkin or squash and the sweet potatoes in a heavy pot.  Add lemon juice, cloves, salt and a cup of coconut milk.  Cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes.

Uncover, stir gently and add cinnamon.  Cook for another 15-20 minutes until vegetables are tender, stirring constantly to prevent sticking.  Add more coconut milk or a bit of water if mixure becomes dry.

From The African News Cookbook
African Cooking for Western Kitchens
Africa News Services, Inc.
Edited by Tami Hultman

From Penguin Books, 1985

Cooking:

LOL!  The name comes from two variants to this recipe wherein the cup of coconut milk is subbed with 1/4c peanut butter and warm water.  I bought coconut milk cheap at Costco several months ago & so any excuse to use it can't be wasted (besides, there were leftovers in the fridge from the peanut butter stew at the time--Sunday or Monday night?). 

Anyways, I subbed the sweet potatoes with yams & pumpkin with Kuri squash (still have some of it left!).  I bought two yams, and cut an equal amount of squash...found I had enough for a double recipe!  Miraculously, I was short on onion, so I subbed with dried onion...only to not even have enough for a normal recipe.  So that was basically useless.  Having some ginger laying around, I cut 2 matchsticks of ginger to make up for the loss of onion (and future omission of cloves).  It was a good idea...but the ginger was either too old or too little to have much of an impact on the final outcome.  I did use 2 cans of coconut milk to get enough liquid for my comfort.


Eating:

Yummy!  This went down so fast & furious, it was gone before that dense peanut butter stew was!  Coconut milk makes everything go down smooth.  And the lemon juice was excellent (though fairly subtle--maybe I didn't squeeze the lemon hard enough?).   

I still need to get rid of the rest of the kuri squash somehow...2c of squash per recipe just doesn't use out a much of a large winter squash.  And I've got a monstrous zuchini lurking around that needs to get eaten soon too....