my.requiescence.

Kaddo Bourani

i love the willow trees along the Charles River. these are among the last trees to hang on stubbornly to their leaves in late November… i totally respect that.

I really thought that I would be elbow-deep in pumpkin recipes and posts by now… I certainly have enough pumpkin recipes bookmarked and 2 cans of pumpkin puree patiently awaiting their use in my kitchen. Perhaps what’s even more surprising is that my first pumpkin recipe of 2011 is a savory dish, rather than baked sweet!

The Helmand is an acclaimed Afghani restaurant in Cambridge that I’ve luckily had the opportunity to dine at several times- and lucky for me, almost every time was for free as it is a favorite of my department for recruitment dinners! I’d never cooked anything remotely resembling Afghani food before, and due to the complexity of spices that entice my tastebuds every time I eat at the Helmand, I was very intimidated to even try. Luckily, a good friend and a frequently visited blog paved the way into the unknown for me, and I decided to give it a go.

This dish epitomizes sweet and savory. Pumpkin slices are baked with a not-so-insignificant amount of sugar until they are candied and almost too sweet, with a silkily soft and yielding texture. Ground beef is cooked with tomatoes, turmeric, and coriander to make a flavorful and savory sort-of stew. And to round out the warm, sweet and savory components of the dish is a cooling tangy garlic-mint yogurt sauce. The dish on the whole, especially on a chilly fall day, is utterly fantastic, it’s comforting and filling, and so flavorful, just the thing I am sure I will continue to crave throughout the winter!

Kaddo Bourani
from here and here, via La Helmand in San Francisco

 Baked pumpkin:

2 Sugar Pie pumpkins, each about 3 pounds (I had one pumpkin and had no idea how heavy it was, estimated maybe 3 pounds, so split the recipe in half)
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons corn oil or other neutral oil
3 cups sugar (it’s a lot of sugar, and in honesty, even halving the recipe was quite sweet for me, though it’s important for the pumpkin to be SWEET for the contrasting flavors, I would cut back to maybe 2 cups)

1. Preheat the oven to 300°F degrees. Cut the pumpkins in half through the stem end, and using a spoon, remove the long stringy fibers. Cut each pumpkin half into 3- to 4-inch pieces. There should be about 8 pieces from each pumpkin. Using a vegetable peeler, pare the rind from the pumpkins, digging the peeler down a little to remove than just the superficial layer of rind.
2. Place the pumpkin pieces hollow sides up in a baking pan large enough to hold them in a single layer. Coat both sides of the pieces, using all of the oil. Pour all the sugar evenly over the pieces. Cover the pan.
3. Bake the pumpkins until the color turns darker orange and becomes nearly translucent, and the texture is extremely tender, about 3 hours and 15 minutes. Baste the pieces once with the pan juices after 2 1/2 hours of baking.
4. To assemble, spoon about 2 tablespoons of the yogurt sauce onto a plate. Using the back of a spoon, spread the sauce a little. Using a slotted spoon, remove 2 pieces of the pumpkin from the pan and center them on the sauce. Spoon about 1/4 cup of the meat sauce over the pumpkin.

Yogurt Sauce:

2 cups plain yogurt (I used 2% Greek, as it was what I had on hand and would recommend)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried mint
1/2 teaspoon or more salt, to taste

1. Stir together the yogurt, garlic, mint, and salt. cover and refrigerate until serving time. Just before serving, taste and add more salt if necessary.

Meat sauce:

1/4 cup corn oil or other neutral oil
1 large onion, finely diced
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 large tomato, finely chopped
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 1/4 teaspoons ground coriander seed
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/3 cups water

1. Heat the oil in a heavy, medium-sized saucepan until it ripples. Add the onions and saute over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until they are golden brown, about 18 minutes (at high heat, my onions began to take on color after 5 minutes, so I turned down the heat and cooked for about 10).
2. Add the beef and saute, stirring constantly to break it up into tiny pieces, until the meat is no longer pink, about 5 minutes.
3. Stir in the tomato, garlic, coriander, salt, pepper, and turmeric. Cook for 5 minutes.
4. Blend in the tomato paste. Add the water and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 15 minutes.
5. Use 2 to 2 1/2 cups of the sauce for the Kaddo Bourani. Cool, cover, and refrigerate the remaining sauce for use throughout the week.