Sweet Pumpkin & Syrup Dessert with Crushed Walnuts

Me: “Oh gosh I’m stuffed, I ate too much”

Hubby/Sister/Brother/Mum/Dad: “Me too!! Why didn’t you stop when you were full?”

Me: “Because it tasted so good, I kept going back for more”

This is a common conversation between the family following each meal at my parents house. My mum is known for cooking for an army. It’s the Wog thing to do! What should be a simple dinner for the 7 of us when we’re altogether every Wednesday night usually involves a spread fit for a King, lavish by all means with servings that could easily feed 20.

Loosening of belts and buttons is a common occurence. So is the following conversation:

Me: “I don’t think I could fit another ounce of food in my mouth”

My sister: “Oh maybe something sweet though in about half an hour?”

Me: “Oh gosh no, are you serious? I’m stuffed!!”

10 seconds of consideration later:

Me: “hmmmm maybe just a little something sweet!!” 

And so we raid the fridge and freezer. Belly’s singing, sweet tooth’s crying out for attention.

My Mum’s pretty good at whipping up a dessert within a short time span using whatever is on hand. My Dad on the other hand criticises us all for being a ‘Pis Boghas’ which translates from Armenian to English as ‘Dirty Appetites’ and angrily walks away.

So it came as a great surprise when my Dad entered the kitchen last week after our family dinner, pulled out a pumpkin and a packet of walnuts from the freezer (if you weren’t already aware of this, a great trick to keep your nuts fresh is storing them in the freezer) and proceeded to make us all a wonderful sweet dessert, using 3 ingredients! Pumpkin, sugar and walnuts

Babas Sweet Pumpkin with roasted walnuts

• 2 kilograms pumpkin
• 2 cups of sugar
• 150 grams crushed walnuts

Peel and dice the pumpkin and place it in a saucepan, cover with the sugar and cook on high covered for 25 minutes. Do not add water. The important thing here is to make sure you add the pumpkin first so it sits on the bottom of the saucepan and add the sugar on top.

When the pumpkin has softened but is not completely mash, it will release its water that has now, combined with the sugar, turned into a syrup.

Transfer the pumpkin and syrup to a shallow baking dish and grill it on high for 10 minutes till the tips caramelise and go crispy.

Serve the caramelised pumpkin along with the sugar syrup while still warm, sprinkled with crushed walnuts on top.

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