"Sugar Pie" Pumpkins

It’s that time of year when the tiny and amazingly sweet “Sugar Pie” pumpkins are available in New England (and beyond I presume), and here’s a fantastic recipe I tried last weekend:

The classic Afghani dish, “Kaddo bourani is…absolutely beautiful…because its three contrasting components (candied sugar pumpkin, savory meat sauce, and a garlic mint yogurt sauce) come together so perfectly. The pumpkin is too sweet on its own. Similarly, the yogurt is sort of sour and garlicky but not that tasty by itself. Yet, when you pair the sweet pumpkin with the savory meat sauce and the cool, refreshing yogurt, you create a simply extraordinary dish.”

I’ve had this dish many times at the fantastic Helmand Restaurant in Cambridge MA, which is curiously owned by the brother of the recently ex-President of Afghanistan (I believe they also own sister restaurants in San Francisco and Baltimore). This is their recipe as originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle (no longer available), but preserved by Jennifer Che of Boston’s Tiny Urban Kitchen blog.

A knock-your-socks-off dish that will impress everyone at Thanksgiving Dinner, but is actually quite easy to prepare.

Here’s my version (not as photogenic as Jennifer’s but it tasted amazing!):

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Great recipe. I usually just roast them, sliced, and drizzle with brown butter as a side dish or roast and make into soup with onions, garlic, fresh ginger, star anise and ras el hanout or garam masala.

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