Kaddo Bourani (Afghani Baked Pumpkin With Yogurt Sauce) - cooking recipe

Ingredients

2 (3 lb) sugar pumpkin
1/4 cup corn oil, plus
2 tablespoons corn oil or 2 tablespoons other neutral oil
3 cups sugar
2 cups plain yogurt (do not use nonfat)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried mint
1/2 teaspoon salt, to taste

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 300\u00b0F.
Cut the pumpkins in half through the stem end, and cut out the long stringy fibers.
Cut each pumpkin half into 3- to 4-inch pieces.
There should be about 8 pieces from each pumpkin.
Using a vegetable peeler, pare the rind from the pumpkins, digging the peeler down a little to remove more than just the superficial layer of rind.
Place the pumpkin pieces hollow sides up in a baking pan large enough to hold them in a single layer.
Coat both sides of the pieces, using all of the oil.
Pour all the sugar evenly over the pieces.
Cover the pan.
Bake the pumpkins until the color turns darker orange and becomes nearly translucent, and the texture is extremely tender, about 3 hours and 15 minutes.
Baste the pieces once with the pan juices after 2 1/2 hours of baking.
The Yogurt Sauce: Stir together the yogurt, garlic, mint and salt.
Cover and refrigerate until serving time.
Just before serving, taste and add more salt if necessary.
Yields 2 cups sauce.
For each serving: Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the yogurt sauce onto a plate.
Using the back of the spoon, spread the sauce a little.
Using a slotted spoon, remove 2 pieces of the pumpkin from the pan and center them on the sauce.
Add more sauce to taste.