Surprising Pleasures

November 15th, 2022

I remember loving food that surprised and delighted me when I was a child. My mother used to make mashed potatoes formed around a meat filling and then lightly fried until golden. They looked like whole potatoes and then there was the surprise inside. I also once made a dessert inspired by them that also looked like potatoes, though this time it was orange Cointreau cake and whipped cream (I’ll put it in a later post) covered with a layer of marzipan and lightly dusted with cocoa, with slivered almonds for the “eyes” of the potatoes. They were so realistic no one ate any until I cut one open and showed everyone that it wasn’t just a platter of dirty raw potatoes. There is a great pleasure involved in that sort of experience especially during a holiday or at a party. So, on that note, here is a recipe for a stuffed whole pumpkin. It looks as if it belongs in a Fellini movie, and it also happens to be especially delicious to eat.

First, it’s important to buy a pumpkin meant to be eaten, called sugar pumpkins or sweet pumpkins. The ones grown for carving will be woody and tasteless, so be sure to ask before you buy one. Also you don’t need a very large pumpkin, if you are serving a lot of people you can put the extra stuffing below the pumpkin. Smaller ones 10–12 inches in diameter (25–30 centimeters) will be enough to divide between several people. A darker orange pumpkin promises ripeness and better flavor.

Sugar pumpkin

Onion, pine nuts and salt with olive oil

Browned onion with pine nuts, currants and spices

Meat browned with onion mixture

Adding tomato paste and broth

Meanwhile cut the off lid off of the pumpkin

Use a spoon to remove seeds and scrape the inside of the pumpkin clear

Heat the butter until brown and add salt and pepper for basting both the inner cavity and the outside of the pumpkin

After basting, fill the inside of the pumpkin with the meat mixture

Sit the filled and basted pumpkin on top of extra filling in a baking dish lined with parchment and add more broth to the filling around it

Stuffed pumpkin ready for the oven

Cooked pumpkin removed from the oven

Cooked pumpkin lid removed

RECIPE FOR STUFFED PUMPKIN

1 medium to large onion, minced

2 T. olive oil

1/3 c. pine nuts

1 T. salt

2 T. cardamon

1 T. cinnamon

2 lb. ground beef

1/3 c. dry currants or raisins

3 T. tomato paste

2 c. chicken broth, divided (College Inn makes a good one without additives or unwanted ingredients)

3 T. butter, melted and cooked to a nutty brown (But not burned!)

Salt and pepper

Put the oil in a large pan and brown the onion with the pine nuts and salt on medium heat.

Add the spices and cook until fragrant 2–3 minutes more.

Add the beef and currants or raisins, breaking up the meat into small pieces until it is cooked through. Stir in tomato paste and 1 cup of the broth and simmer for 5 minutes more, then turn off the heat.

Warm the butter on low heat and cook until it begins to brown. Shut heat right away (it can burn fast) and add salt and pepper. Cool.

Wash and dry the pumpkin. Cut carefully around the stem and reserve the top as a lid. Preheat oven to 350º.

Using a spoon clear the inside of the pumpkin removing any fiber and seeds. If you are inclined, you can free the seeds from the fibers, add a teaspoon of oil and a teaspoon of salt to them and roast them for 30 minutes. (They are good to eat whole as is or sprinkled on salads).

Set the pumpkin on a baking dish with sides, line it with baking parchment, and baste it inside and out with the brown butter. Then fill it with the meat mixture, distributing the extra around the pumpkin. Pour the remaining cup of broth onto the meat filling outside the pumpkin.

Place the lid on top of the pumpkin and roast it for 2 hours in the preheated oven. To serve, remove the lid and cut downward on the pumpkin to make slices and serve along with a portion of the meat filling.

Serving of stuffed pumpkin