Kaddu or Kumhde ki sukhi Sabzi

 

Kaddu, kumhda or India's pumpkin, was  for our breakfast today with Puris. A very old fashioned U.P. wala breakfast. There is nothing as very special as such in this menu, but as I was cooking this breakfast in a snowy Sunday morning,  various memories and stories were flashing inside me. 

Around the world, the mention of pumpkin conjures up images of spooky jack-o’-lanterns at Halloween, the ubiquitous pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, or a hearty soup, with a drizzle of olive oil and some warm, buttered bread on the side. In India, every state has its own special recipe for the thin walled, firm fleshed vegetable – stir fried, in a gravy or with a mix of sweet and sour ingredients.

The Indian pumpkin is smaller in size compared to its western counterparts, and can look dull with green-yellow stripes, or orange-green speckled skin. Yet, it gets the regal treatment on Indian vegetable carts for its all-year availability and versatility. It is called kaddu in Hindi, sihi kumbalakai in Kannada, parangikai in Tamil, mathanga in Malayalam and ronga lau in Assamese. Interestingly, this vegetable is not considered indigenous to India.

The world’s oldest domesticated pumpkin seeds were discovered in the Mexican Oacaxa Highlands dating back 7500 years. These early versions of the pumpkin were different from what we eat today. They were much smaller, harder, and bitter. With time, new varieties, including the North American thick fleshed pumpkins got popular. Explorers carried them across to the various tropical lands they colonized. These variants were possibly brought to Indian shores by the Portuguese.

However, some old texts do confirm the pumpkin’s presence in India, before colonizers set foot in the country. In his book, Si-Yu-ki, translated by Samuel Beal, the famed Chinese traveler, Xuan Zang, who traveled through India between 629-645 mentions the pumpkin among the edible herbs and plants being grown in India. In the acclaimed book, Indian food: A Historical Companion, food historian, K T Achaya highlights 25 cucurbita (pumpkin’s botanical family) species in India with Sanskrit names, it can be confirmed that they had a historically long presence in the country.

For the average Indian household, the pumpkin is a cheap buy, quite unlike the West where it is considered an exotic crop. According to Bangalore-based chef Nishant Choubey, the easy availability of the pumpkin, has made it a prolifically used vegetable. He says, “In South India, it is the central ingredient in a sambar, whereas in Bengal, in the east, you have the khatta meeta kaddu with gud (sweet and sour pumpkin with jaggery); or it is often simply tossed with panch phoran (a classic Bengali spice mix) and mango powder to make a quick side dish.”

In the predominantly vegetarian Dogra cuisine of Jammu, kaddu ka ambal is a brilliant example of the pumpkin’s balancing act with sweet and sour flavors. Cooked with jaggery, tamarind juice, with a hint of green chilies and tempering of fenugreek and cumin, the ambal is an essential part of wedding feasts.

Now, back to my memories. Perhaps you know that, here in U.S. stores, this Kabocha squash is immensely sweet. For more than two decades, I off and on bought this hoping somehow I would master it by adding more chilli powder and khatai, but everytime my kaddu was extremely sweet and not very yummy. Hubby always refused to eat and lately I also stopped buying it. But again, after 3-4 years, I had a craving of kaddu ki khatti teekhi and lightly sweet sabzi with puris and as I was shopping in Indian Superstore Patel Brothers, I hesitatingly picked the smallest cut piece and brought home. Thought to make masaledar sabzi adding more spices and chili powder. When I was chopping it, luckily I tasted a teeny tiny piece and voila, it was not sweet at all! Tasted again and yep, it was that damn sweet! so, delightedly, decided to cook khatti teekhi traditional kaddu ki sabzi next time.

This is my second time after a couple of months that I cooked this subzi which I bought from the same store. And It turned out so yummy!

Some interesting stories about kaddu ki sabzi which I was remembering while cooking....

My father had told me that in his childhood days, weddings were fixed only in summers. Relatives could come earlier and stay as there were long summer vacations of children. And in every upper middle class wedding of U.P. particularly eastern U. P. and may be Bihar, the menu was almost fixed and same! It was the time when people were simple and did not believe in show off. Puris and kachoris made in desi ghee, kathel  aalu ki rasedar tarkari(Green jackfruit -Potato gravy), kumhde ki khatti meethi sukhi sabzi, imli ki chutney, raita or dahi vada and some sweets like laddu or boondi, Parwal ki mithai or gulab jamun. That's it! Life was uncomplicated, no showoff, no wastage of food.

As I was Looking at the accumulated snow from my window, I thought this kaddu has now travelled from the gangetic plains of my ancestral home to the mighty Lake Michigan and how comfortably food, cuisines and spices travel with us and mingle with different cultures and terrains. Enough pondering for now, let's see the recipe.

Ingredients:

1. Kaddu- 250 gm. (Peeled and cut into 1/2" pieces
2. Mustard oil- 1 tbsp.
3. Red dry chili-3 broken
4. Fenugreek seeds- 1/2 tsp.
5. Asafoetida- 1 pinch
6. Dry mango powder(Aamchoor Powder)-3-4 tsp.
7. Salt to taste
8. Sugar or jaggery- 1-2 tbsp.

Method:

• Heat oil in a kadai or pan, when smoky hot, add fenugreek seeds, asafoetida .
• Brown the seeds, add broken red chillies.
• Now add kaddu and salt and cover and cook till soft, should not be overcooked or mushy.
• Add aamchoor powder and sugar or jaggery and cook on high flame for a couple of seconds.
• Cover the lid and turn off the flame.
• Tastes best with puris and parathas.