As young children, we took our regular holidays in Dehradun, in the Himalayan foothills, with my grandparents. As a special treat, my grandmother would send out for this pumpkin dish with freshly made Pooris. The sight of my grandparents’ cook, Moti Singh, cycling back with the goodies swinging in a bag from the handlebars would set all of us drooling, while he pretended to be affronted that we preferred the ‘bought stuff’ to his home-cooked delicacies. You can serve this dish as an accompaniment to meat or vegetable main courses, or by itself with pooris.