Yes, pumpkin is in town. The huge round type that you buy in wedges carved out with a gigantic saw, cleared off the seeds and peeled. I always admire the pumpkin guys (and in season you will see a few at any weekly market in Istanbul) who are on a mission to make this fabulous vegetable more accessible and less intimidating for the home cooks.
At the Istanbul food markets you often find two types of pumpkin - pale-orange hard pumpkins from Sakarya (infamous Adapazari balkabaği) and intense orange, slightly softer and a bit more watery variety from the Aegean town of Balıkesir. Both are sweet: in fact, Turkish pumpkins are the sweetest in class as suggested by the very name: balkabaği (Turkish for pumpkin) means honey squash. That’s why it seems most natural to poach pumpkin wedges in the sugar syrup and serve as an all-time-favorite dessert. Try to cook a savory pumpkin dish - and many Turks will be surprised. Not that savory pumpkin dishes do not belong to the Turkish culinary tradition.
I came across a pumpkin appetizer called sinkonta at a few restaurants on the Aegean coast: thinly sliced sweet pumpkin baked in the garlicky olive oil until the vegetable becomes very soft and caramelizes a bit. I was immediately sold because I am not big fan of braising my vegetables in the royal quantities of olive oil for hours, but baking them in a bit of olive oil to concentrate their flavors sounded like a completely different deal with the higher nutritional returns.
I tried to trace down the origin of the dish but did not find out much. First, I was puzzled by the name: sinkonta does not sound Turkish at all. Could it be Greek, since the Greeks used to live on that land for centuries? Or Ladino showing the culinary influences of Spain brought in by the Sephardic Jews? A Turkish food writer assumed even Balkan origins pointing that Albanian immigrants may have brought the dish to the region. What a mystery!
Sinkonta seems to be local to the inland Aegean, in particular areas of Tire and Manisa, where the dish is prepared meatless just like we ate or the pumpkin slices may be layered over the bones of the sacrificed lamb during the Bayram festivities and then roasted until soft. And there is no agreement about what meatless sinkonta should be. While searching I came across a whole range of takes on sinkonta: in many cases, it was made of zucchini rather than pumpkin, which is a completely different story that I ruled out. Some suggested that sinkonta was pureed roasted pumpkin dressed with garlicky yogurt. Others insisted on addition of tomato or tomato paste thickened by flour; some would say where is no tomato but onion, whereas others would omit onion and even garlic.
I don’t believe there is just one right recipe, so I’ve recreated the dish the way I tasted it: thin slices of pumpkin, sliced onions and what I called a Greek vinaigrette (olive oil, lemon juice and garlic), a popular Aegean seasoning often served with the grilled seafood. Meanwhile, there is a lot of room for experimentation: you can play with the seasoning and take it Indian (turmeric, cumin and dried ginger), Lebanese (zahter) or Thai (curry paste) directions. You can use this method to cook any root vegetable the season brings (I tried and loved celeriac/carrot version replacing lemon juice with freshly squeezed orange juice). And that sort of things.
But if you are familiar with sinkonta and know anything about its origins I’d appreciate if you share in the comments. I believe every dish has a “culinary memory”: I knows all its previous reincarnations but can’t tell you unless you cook it and share with somebody who might have an idea. That’s why I thought I’ll put in on the blog, and maybe you help me find out.
Pumpkin Baked in Greek Vinaigrette (Sinkonta)
Prep time 10 Min
Cook time 50 Min
Total time 1 H
Serves: 4
Ingredients
- 1 kg peeled pumpkin, cut into wedges
- 2 large onions, peeled
- 1/4 cup water
For vinaigrette
- 4 large cloves garlic, peeled and cut into 0.5 cm thick chunks
- 5 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- pinch freshly ground black pepper
- 6 pinches salt
- pinch sugar
For serving
- 3 tbsp thick yogurt (watered down, if you wish)
- 1 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp ground sumac (optional)
- 1/2 tsp dry oregano (optional)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 200C/390F. Cut the pumpkin into 0.5 cm thick slices and place in a large mixing bowl. Cut the onions into the paper thin slices and transfer both to a medium mixing bowl. In a small jar with a lead combine the vinaigrette ingredients, close the lead tightly and shake the jar enthusiastically for a minute or so, until the vinaigrette emulsifies. Pour about 2/3 of the vinaigrette over the pumpkin slices and the remainder over the onions. Rub the vinaigrette into the pumpkin slices; squeeze the sliced onions very well to separate the onions and let the juices some out. Oil a baking tray, arrange the pumpkin slices in one layer, spread a bit of the onions, then again a layer of the pumpkin slices and onions. Continue altering and reserve a bit of onions for the top layer. Pour in 1/4 cup water and place the tray in the preheat over. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until the pumpkin is fork-tender. Serve hot, warm or cold seasoned with a few dollops of thick yogurt and seasoned with fresh mint.
