I Made a Recipe From '100 Perfect Pairings'

I won it in a blog contest: 100 Perfect Pairings: Main Dishes to Enjoy with Wines You Love by Jill Silverman Hough, published by Wiley. I forget which blog I won it from - I haven't even been able to find a link to it by scrolling through my last month's Twitter feed. Since I can't repay the favor to the blogger I won it from, I'll pay it forward instead:

Leave a comment for your chance to win a copy of 100 Perfect Pairings. I'll randomly choose a name on Sunday, June 12. (Make sure your e-mail address is accessible through your profile, or leave it in the comment.)

You can't have my copy, though. I'll send you your own.

The recipe I made today was curried pumpkin and potato stew. You can either make this stew vegan, or you can add chicken broth. I used chicken stock because I was out of veggie broth. The recipe also called for pumpkin...

...red potatoes...

...coconut milk (I used what my local organic market had, a concentrated coconut product)...

...and raisins. Boghosian raisins are the best ones I've ever tasted. I get the big bag from Gordon Food Service (a restaurant supply store also open to the public).

(This is not a complete list.)

The finished product looked like this, sprinkled with shaved coconut:

The verdict? It's absolutely delicious. I like the thick, rich texture of the coconut milk and canned pumpkin as a base for this stew. The suggested amount of curry was just right. The recipe also calls for cinnamon and cayenne pepper, but I didn't have cayenne, so I substituted some ground red chilies my friend Betty grew. Mmm, perfect.

As for the wine pairing...well, I didn't have any gewurztraminer on hand, either. I ate this flavorful stew with diet ginger ale, and that was a perfect pairing, too.