Pumpkin tricks (and treats)

Pumpkins aren’t just for Halloween, but it took the two of us quite a while to become big fans. Maybe we were misled by the supermarkets’ monster pumpkins,  bred for making lanterns and little else.

Ignore these orange mutants with their bland flesh, and get a proper made-for-eating pumpkin or squash, then try the following four tricks in your pumpkin recipes…

Trick #1: buy what you need

Pumpkins can be quite big, hulking things. A pumpkin will last for ages if it’s still intact, but un potiron (as it’s called in the Languedoc) can be far too much to eat between two or three people.

So you might want to buy it by the tranche (slice) if you can – or share one big pumpkin between a couple of  friends. Or experiment with some smaller squashes.

Trick#2:  learn the oven roasting thing

This concentrates the flavour, kickstarts the caramelization, and  is often the starting point for many pumpkin recipes. More on this process below.

Trick #3: don’t bother to peel the skin

If the skin doesn’t soften during the roasting you don’t have to eat it – but it’s far easier to scoop the flesh away once it’s cooked.

Trick #4: use your imagination

Pumpkin is very versatile, from pies and flans to soups, breads and cakes, pickles and jams, curries, in ravioli or roasted with polenta. Think of it in both savoury dishes and sweet desserts.

Try an apple crumble – replace half the apples with chopped pumpkin, then in the crumble bit you can add lots of cinnamon and some finely chopped pecan nuts.

Or how about an easy-to-make pumpkin icecream or even chocolate pumpkin truffles?

Pumpkin, bacon and sage risotto

Here’s a favourite pumpkin recipe in our house – a risotto with the pumpkin’s good old mates bacon and sage. First, roast your pumpkin:

1. Remove the seeds (but don’t throw them away) and the fibre (this will go on the compost heap)
2. Cut the flesh into chunks – don’t bother to remove the skin
3. Put the chunks in a large mixing  bowl and rub them all over with 2 or 3 tablespoons of olive oil, a dozen fresh sage leaves,  sea salt and pepper. If you don’t have any sage, try a tablespoon of fresh marjoram and a teaspoon of dried oregano
4. Lay the chunks on a baking tray, skin side down, and put them in a hot oven (preheated to about 210C)
5. During the last 10 minutes or so of the roasting, add some slices of bacon or pancetta, and cook them until the bacon crisps up
6. When the pumpkin chunks are soft and the edges are tinged with brown, remove from the oven and allow to cool
7. Scrape the flesh from the skin and shred roughly with a fork

Meanwhile prepare your risotto in the usual way with:

• Olive oil
• Finely chopped onions or shallots
• Risotto rice
• White wine
• Chicken stock

Once the rice is ready (about 20 minutes), stir in the pumpkin, along with freshly grated Parmesan (and butter if you insist) and garnish with a couple of thinly sliced sage leaves and another  sprinkling of Parmesan.

Plate up, sprinkle the crispy bacon bits on top, lightly drizzle with some  extra virgin olive oil, and an optional extra garnish of a dollop of mascarpone.

Seed ideas

To add a bit of a kick, you could roast the pumpkin with coriander seeds instead of the sage.

Put a tablespoon of coriander seeds into a mortar and  then “pestle” them (is that the right verb?): pound and crush the seeds a bit then sprinkle them on the pumpkin slices before roasting.

Talking of seeds, you could also try roasting the pumpkin seeds separately, check that they taste nice and crunchy, and sprinkle them onto the final dish.

Advertisement