ghosted.

Hi. Let's talk about food.

And here is an especially promising new thing, got it from here, did it camping style with no oven so I imagine the recipe will change eventually, but tonight was pretty darn good. Instead of a meat sauce I made this Lentil Bolognaise with Afghani spices instead of Italian. Here's where the idea came from. I bet toasted pumpkinseeds would be a good experiment on top.

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kaddo bourani (sweet afghani pumpkin with spicy tomato-lentil sauce and garlic yogurt).

3 tbsp butter
2 onions, chopped fine
2 carrots, diced small, smaller than you usually would
100g tempeh, diced the same smallness as the carrots (optional)
1 tsp ground coriander (or more, this is the most important taste)
1/2 tsp ground turmeric (or more)
3 cloves garlic, pressed
3 cans tomatoes
2 tbsp tomkllllllllllllllllllloikjjjjjjjjjjjato paste (thanks Pip)
2 tsp sriracha
1 cup green lentils (not the fancy kind)
1 cup water
a pinch smoked salt
a pinch red chile flakes
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 small pumpkin,  peeled, seeded, and cubed into 1.5-cm cubes or something like that
some cooking method
sugar
butter

2 cups yogurt
4 cloves garlic, pressed
2 tsp dried mint
salt to taste

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Mmm, it went something like this: melt the butter in a big pot. Throw in the onions and carrots and tempeh if using and saute for 8 minutes or so. Then throw the coriander and turmeric in and saute it all for 3 minutes or so. Then the garlic, for a minute or two. Then the tomatoes, the tomkllllllllllllllllllloikjjjjjjjjjjjato paste, the sriracha, the lentils, and the water. And maybe the salt, chile and pepper too. Yeah go ahead. Do it. You're going to cook this business for about 30 minutes, or until the lentils are al dente, possibly adding more water as you need to to give the lentils something to soak up. If you do do that you'll probably need to adjust salt and pepper again.

Meanwhile, on another burner if you're camping like I was and don't have an oven to do Helmand's candying thing linked to above: boil the squash in water for 10 minutes or so, or however long it takes the squash to be cooked but still hold its shape. Drain it and caramelize the outside of it in sugar and melted butter (roughly 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp sugar).

Oh, right: before you do any of this, make the yogurt sauce: go into the fridge and find the oldest of the several buckets of Greek yogurt that are in there. Scrape off any gross looking parts and throw away any watery liquid that has accumulated. With what's left, use a silicone spatula to make it look pretty, then add the garlic, mint, and salt to taste. Don't tell anybody what you just did. Stir to combine. Let sit for at least an hour before you do the first two steps.

Serves probably 4.

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