Butternut Squash and Coconut Rice.

I was making this rice dish at the same time as the muffins that were using up left over ingredients last night, the squash was roasting while the muffins were cooking. I normally don't overlap things in the oven, but pumpkin muffins with a roasting half squash seemed fairly harmless. This is a dish that my sister-in-law introduced to us at Christmas, from a recipe book called Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I loved it so much that it didn't take long for me to want to reproduce it myself. 

It is full of fresh, pungent flavours and smells, one of the reasons why I love it! Fresh ginger, fresh garlic, lime juice and zest, chilli flakes, coconut milk, squash and rice. I believe the recipe traditionally uses white rice, or basmati etc, I only have brown rice and it seemed just fine in there. It is also fairly simple to make, cook rice, roast squash, fry up everything else, including shallots which I didn't have so used onion instead, add squash and coconut milk to the frying pan, make creamy, add rice, make creamy. I believe you are meant to use stock to make it creamy, I just finished all the coconut milk because I didn't want another partially used ingredient in the fridge begging for a creative solution. The smell is amazing, rich, sweet, creamy, cut with bold spices and fresh lime, wow, I can smell it just thinking of it. I am sure I over did the spices and lime and chilli but I do like my food bold and it tastes amazing. 

I ate it then and there for dinner with a side of mushrooms cooked in butter and garlic with a dash of Worcestershire sauce and a sprinkling of grated parmesan. 

At the same time as making the rice and muffins, I made a marinade for chicken using some of the same ingredients - garlic, ginger, coconut milk, lime juice and zest. I also added some spicy peanut sauce to it and soy sauce and brown sugar. Into this I dropped some cut up boneless, skinless chicken thighs with fat removed and left them to marinade overnight. Today for lunch we ate the same glorious rice, with wilted spinach and the chicken which I fried up quickly in a non stick pan. The marinade was very in tune with the rice, and it went very well together on the palate. I boiled up the rest of the marinade and we drizzled this over the rice, adding further punch to the dish. 

This is a great dish, bold enough and complete enough to carry itself as a meal on its own, yet quite happy to sit back and be the side to come funky chicken too. I still have some in the fridge which I will eat here and there in various ways I imagine. Heaven!