Now don’t be babies and skip this post because it’s got ‘kaddu/ kumbalkayi’ as the star ingredient. I know I ran a mile when my mom made pumpkin playa when I was a kid. There was so much drama about not eating it, that my mom finally relented and stopped making it for many years. But I guess I was always a hypocrite when it came to pumpkins. There’s a special halwa (sweet) called ‘Kashi Halwa’, that’s made out of pumpkins for our wedding ceremonies. I used to wait patiently furiously tapping my banana leaf for the waiter to serve us the halwa. I would quickly devour it before he finished serving the rest of the table and act like he missed serving me. The look on the waiter’s face was priceless! But topping that look was mine, when my mom finally told me that the halwa was made out of pumpkin! Evil evil woman! After that I had to make my peace with the pumpkin. (If only to avoid the dichotomy while eating the halwa!)
Circa 2012, over a dinner in Graze at the Taj Vivaanta – I order Pumpkin Soup. The co-resident looks like he’s going to gag on his breadstick. I look at him smugly with a wait and watch approach. The soup is divine! Maybe because of the generous amount of truffle oil, but divine nonetheless. It also costs an arm and a leg. So I come back home and attempt to replicate it over the weekend. And the result is this gorgeous concoction. Yum yum yum… I kicked the recipe up a notch and served it with some Maple-paprika croutons. I now crown myself Queen of the Pumpkin Patch! :P
