I’m kicking myself for those times in the middle of the summer that I whined about how hot it was and that I was SO looking forward to fall. While my husband was out chasing the last days of mild, golfing weather this September, I was unpacking wool sweaters wondering when the temperatures would just start to take a dip already. When the leaves began changing and mornings were a little cooler than usual, I rejoiced and dug out my favorite soup recipes. I made Chili! I made Lentil soup! The kitchen was redolent with the scents of baked apples and spices.
And then the mornings started getting frosty, and I was donning a winter coat just to stumble across the lawn and walk the puppy for his first tinkle of the day. Before I knew it, I broke out the gloves and I was wandering around the house with my shoulders permanently hunched towards my ears, kvetching about the chill and checking the thermostat for the 10th time that day.
It’s not even the middle of November. It’s going to be a long winter.
With the colder days, I have been on a winter squash kick. Sitting attentively on my counter this morning were a Spaghetti, Kuri, Sugar Pumpkin, and Turban Squash (this after the Butternut I had cooked earlier in the week).
(I’m still on the lookout for the famed Kabocha squash that has been so popular in the blogosphere. I’m going to the Farmer’s Market this weekend and hoping I find one there. Winter squash Gods, do you hear me? Can you make it happen? Like, pretty please??)
Anywho, I’m looking at the squashes (is that even the correct term for multiple squash?) and those babies are looking at me, batting their pretty little eyes and tossing their hair, hoping they get the next rose. In that moment, I remembered one the most glorious foods to ever cross my lips: Kaddo Bourani. I get this every time I go this amazing Afghan restaurant in Baltimore called The Helmand. It’s the most sublimely caramelized, roasted pumpkin topped with a pungent, tangy, but still gorgeously creamy yogurt sauce. My husband isn’t a pumpkin fan (the horror, OY, the horror), which means that I get to snarf this down all by myself. Each time I lick the last bits off my fork, I think to myself that I really need to find the recipe for it (and perhaps adopt better table manners, but such is life).
So, here I am lookin’ at the pumpkin, the pumpkin is lookin’ at me and bing, bam, boom. You can figure out how the rest of this story goes.
After a brief search around the internet, I found the recipe pretty easily (which really kinda makes me feel like a doofus for not having made this, oh, a whole heck of a lot sooner). Since I didn’t make this one up, I have linked to it and I will tell you the changes I made:
--I only had 1 pumpkin, so I halved the amount of sugar and oil
--I’ve been having issues with dairy lately, so I used coconut milk yogurt, instead. I drained it for a few hours to thicken it.
--I have heartburn issues with garlic (you’re probably laughing at this point because, heck, I just have issues), so I used garlic powder instead of the real stuff
--I didn’t have dried mint, so I just left it out
--I didn’t make the meat sauce because I haven’t eaten land animals since September 2nd (after watching Earthlings, but we can talk about that later)
Even with the substitutions, the result delivered nothing short of moaning, groaning and hasty marriage proposals (my husband won’t mind if I cheat on him with a pumpkin, will he?) (you know, after writing that, I realized how thoroughly inappropriate I am.)
I don’t have issues, I have subscriptions.
On that note, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Yum. Mo.
Notice the little caramelized edges. I die.
Did I say “Yum” yet? I did? Okay, well just get in ma belly. Now.
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