Kabak Tatlısı

Layered with sugar overnight, then cooked in nothing but the liquid that draws out of it.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (clotted cream).

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg pumpkin, peeled and in thick chunks
• 400 g granulated sugar
• 4 cloves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 bay leaves

to serve

• 100 g walnuts, chopped
• 3 tablespoons tahini
• clotted cream (optional)

Method

1. IT IS LAYERED WITH SUGAR OVERNIGHT, THEN COOKED IN NOTHING BUT THE LIQUID THAT DRAWS OUT OF IT. No water goes into the pan at any point. The pumpkin is cut into thick chunks, layered in a dish with the sugar between the layers, covered and left twelve hours -- and by morning there is a considerable pool of syrup in the bottom, drawn out of the pumpkin by osmosis. That liquid is the entire cooking medium. Because the pumpkin has already given up much of its water, and because what it cooks in is saturated with sugar, the chunks stay firm and candied and translucent instead of collapsing. Add water and the pumpkin boils, falls apart, and the result is a sweet purée.
2. THE OVERNIGHT WAIT IS NOT OPTIONAL AND CANNOT BE SHORTENED. Twelve hours. An hour gives a little liquid and the pan will be dry before the pumpkin is cooked, which forces water in and loses the dish. If there seems to be too little syrup in the morning, the answer is more time or more sugar, not water.
3. THE CHUNKS ARE CUT THICK -- FOUR OR FIVE CENTIMETRES. Large. They shrink considerably and they are meant to arrive as distinct candied pieces that can be picked up. Cut small, they disintegrate.
4. IT IS COOKED COVERED AND NOT STIRRED. Lid on, low heat, forty to fifty minutes, and the pan shaken rather than stirred if anything needs moving. A spoon through softening pumpkin breaks the pieces, and once broken they release water and the syrup thins.
5. IT IS DONE WHEN THE FLESH IS TRANSLUCENT, NOT WHEN IT IS SOFT. The pieces go from opaque orange to a glassy deep amber as the syrup penetrates. Soft but still opaque means it is cooked but not candied, and that is the difference between this and boiled pumpkin with sugar on.
6. THE TAHINI GOES ON AT THE TABLE AND IS NOT COOKED. Drizzled over the cold pieces. Its bitterness against the intense sweetness is what makes the dish work, and heated in the pan it turns dull and slightly gritty.
7. IT IS COOLED COMPLETELY IN THE SYRUP. Several hours. The last of the candying happens as it cools and the syrup thickens around the pieces.
8. The pumpkin peeled and cut into THICK chunks, 4 to 5 cm.
9. LAYERED in a dish with the sugar between the layers.
10. Covered and left 12 HOURS, until a considerable pool of syrup has drawn out.
11. Everything tipped into a wide heavy pan with the cloves, cinnamon and bay. NO WATER ADDED.
12. Lid on, cooked over a LOW heat 40 to 50 MINUTES. NOT STIRRED -- the pan shaken if needed.
13. TESTED: the flesh should be TRANSLUCENT and glassy deep amber, not merely soft and opaque.
14. The lid taken off and cooked 10 MINUTES more if the syrup is thin.
15. COOLED COMPLETELY IN THE SYRUP, 4 HOURS.
16. The spices removed. Served cold with the walnuts scattered over and the TAHINI drizzled on at the table, uncooked.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Turkey · All recipes