Kaddu ka halwa

I must say I feel very sorry for the poor pumpkin. I don’t think any other vegetable gets the kind of treatment that the pumpkin does. Just take the Hindi word for it —kaddu. It’s used in all kinds of derogatory ways — and is especially used to denote scorn. Kaddu, you say with a sneer when someone tells you he hangs out with Shakira.

It’s a pity, for the pumpkin is quite a versatile squash. I have written about the various ways it can be cooked in Western cuisine. But even across India, you can do all kinds of delicious things with it. All through my childhood, in fact, a feast — for a birth, a wedding or even a death — meant a curry of diced pumpkin served with the pooris. And I loved it.

I think Anurudh Khanna, the executive chef of The Park in New Delhi, has a soft spot for pumpkins too. Though he confesses to me that he may not want to cook and eat pumpkins at home, he’s presented me with some delicious recipes of simple — and exotic — pumpkin dishes. And yes, the old sabzi that kept me going back for seconds and thirds is there as well.

Chef Anurudh Khanna

Pumpkins come in different kinds but the ones that are used the most in Indian food are the white and red ones. These squashes figure prominently in a version of chochchori that’s often cooked in our house. The chochchori, as most Bengalis will know, is a simple mix of vegetables tempered with a few spices. In fact, I would say that in Bengal, the pumpkin isn’t treated with the same disdain as it is in many other quarters. Thinly sliced pumpkin slices wrapped in batter and fried are quite a delicacy.

But it’s in the South that the pumpkin really comes into its own. It figures in chutneys, pops up in dals, and is quite a dish in itself. The chef does a mean yerra gummadikaya kura — pumpkin cooked with chillies, tomatoes and jaggery — and pachadi with ripe pumpkin, tomatoes and grated coconuts and tempered with green chillies, mustard seeds, whole red chilli, jaggery, tamarind and curry leaves.

Or take the pumpkin kootu. Prepared with red pumpkin, split green gram and split black lentils and flavoured with coconut, it’s a popular southern Indian dish. Even his kaddu dalcha (see recipe) is a Hyderabadi recipe.

Pumpkin baklava

Others may sneer but I really like the taste of pumpkins. We often cook it at home — but simply with a tempering of fenugreek seeds and red chillies. In my village, this dish used to be cooked with a bit of fresh jaggery, almost off the sugarcane fields. I suppose it’s the gourd’s sweetness and pulpy texture that put off people — but these are the very reasons I enjoy it. And these factors work well in sweet dishes cooked with pumpkins too.

For instance, chef Anurudh does a pumpkin halwa which is used as a filling for baklavas. But what I enjoyed immensely were his pumpkin laddoos — prepared with grated ash gourd, grated coconut, khoya and sugar. It was simply out of this world.

So all in all, the pumpkin feast with the chef was a delectable affair. As a die-hard pumpkin-ite, I felt I had been vindicated. At the end of the meal, I thought it was time Cinderella’s story was rewritten. Instead of turning a pumpkin into a carriage, the fairy godmother should simply have cooked it. Cinderella would have missed the ball but I don’t think she would mind.

Kaddu Ka Dalcha (serves 8)

Ingredients:

• 300g pumpkin • 1.5kg chana dal • 300g sliced onions • 15g cumin powder • 5g coriander powder • 4g turmeric • 8g coriander seeds (roasted and powdered) • 250ml ghee • 20g green chillies • 125g ginger garlic paste

Method:

Heat ghee in a heavy bottom pan. Add sliced onions and sauté them till golden brown. Add the ginger garlic paste, turmeric and coriander powder and cook till oil starts to ooze out. Now add the green chillies, pumpkin and chana dal and sauté them lightly. Add water and cook till the dal dissolves and the pumpkin is tender. Finish with roasted and powdered cumin and coriander seeds and salt.