Pumpkin Pie Spice, and What to Do with Kaddu

It's kaddu season in South Asia! Kaddu is a wonderful substitute for pumpkin in lots of delicious fall recipes. Several have already started appearing on the blog, but here's some tips for cooking kaddu.

The subji wallas (vegetable salesmen) will have kaddu sitting out on their cart, usually already cut into. It's got green and yellow streaks on the outside and is pale orange on the inside, with normal looking pumpkin seeds. I usually buy a quarter of a kaddu at a time, which comes to around 1 kg.

There are lots of ways to cook the kaddu. Lots of people cover it in foil and bake it in the oven. AndreaS says: "For pumpkin I like to steam or boil. I just cut it off the rind and chunk it and steam or boil. I've tried to bake it - but for me it takes forever and it's always a little tougher in texture."

I figured, why not try something new? :) I bought some last week and cleaned out the seeds and cut it into smaller pieces that were about the size of my hand. My pressure cooker came with a little stand or grill plate for the bottom, so I put that in the bottom of the cooker and added water up to the rim of it. I put the kaddu pieces on the stand, and closed it, cooked them for about 10-15 minutes. They turned a beautiful dark orange color, and a knife slid the skins right off. I scooped the mushy kaddu into my mixee and pureed it, adding just enough water (or juice from the bottom of the pressure cooker for more flavor!) to make it smooth. Wow! It was beautiful! :) The 1 kg made about 2 cups of puree. 1 3/4 cup puree is equal to one can of pumpkin in the states, so I made some pumpkin bread, and with the remaining 1/4 c. I made a couple rounds of pumpkin spice lattes! I love fall!

Here's a great Make-Your-Own recipe from AndreaS. She says:

"I've made a lot of pumpkin things lately... Here's a recipe for Pumpkin Pie Spice if anyone is interested. The Ginger powder here is much stronger, so I usually use a little less. I haven't been able to find nutmeg powder (I've only recently looked though) - I usually just grind the nuts/seeds (are they nuts or seeds?) - same with the cloves ..."

Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (dalchini)
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (jaiphal / javitri) powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (Laung / Lavang) powder
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (soonth) powder