A sweet delight for the cold season - kabak tatlısı

Autumn arrives with an array of warm colours making up for cold winds and morning frost. Markets heave with colours: the deep red of pomegranates, the soft brown or mustard yellow of pears, the crisp greens and reds of apples, and the blast of bright orange of pumpkins.

Pumpkin has arrived to Turkey from the New World via Europe in the 17^th century. Finding optimal environment, it has spread rapidly and has very soon claimed its own niche in Turkish cuisine. Pumpkin with walnuts, pumpkins stuffed with sweet or savoury fillings, pumpkin flower dolma, and pumpkin soup made their way to the sultans’ kitchen as well.

As a member of the Cucurbita family, pumpkin’s relatives include cucumbers, gherkins, melons. Noting the similarity, in the 16^th century, Jacques Cartier called the weird new fruit he found in the St Lawrence region of North America “gros pompon”. The root of the word goes back to the Greek word for “melon” – pepon. However, the first pumpkins probably came to Europe with the returning Spanish conquistadors, although these were cultivated first for feeding animals only. Pumpkins are valuable for a healthy diet as they are high in fibre, rich in beta and alpha carotene, potassium. Pumpkin seeds are a good source of protein, vitamin K, iron, zinc, phytosterols and L-tryptophan.

Embark on a culinary journey and try kabak tatlısı, or pumpkin desert to bring a new flavour to the usual array of pumpkin soups or pumpkin pies. In Turkey, you will find this on family dinner tables or sold in the street. It can be accompanied with walnuts or clotted cream (kaymak), or simply wrapped in a piece of paper and handed to you over the counter.

Preparation

The simplest mode of preparing poached pumpkin uses 3 ingredients only: pumpkin (or butternut squash), sugar and lemon juice. The pumpkin needs to be peeled, seeded and cubed. 

Once ready with these, you’re done with the hardest and most (active) time consuming part of the whole process. Now, you will just have to cover the pumpkin slices in sugar: the ratio of pumkin to sugar is 2:1.

Cover your bowl and leave the pumpkin sit there under the sugar overnight (or at least for 3-4 hours). You will be amazed how much juice the sugar will draw from the pumpkin.

You will be cooking the pumpkin in in this syrupy juice for about 30 minutes. During cooking, add the lemon juice. Don’t overcook, or you will end up with a mushy pumpkin cream instead. When you see the pumkin getting a deeper orange colour, it is ready.

To make the outside hardened and crispy, lime powder can be used. You will have to soak the pumpkin pieces in lime water for about 6 hours. After having washed the pumpkin slices, you cook them in a mixture of sugar, lemon and water.

Of course, you can play with adding various spices to the cooking liquid – try cloves, or star anise, ginger, cardamom. This vegetable is perfect for testing your creativity! Afiyet olsun!